Catching Up

June: 

Johnathon graduated! He will be studying Culinary Arts at Collin College and will continue working at Market Street in the Bakery. His classes start on August 22nd. He just moved into an apartment in Frisco Square. It's a nice area in Down Town Frisco and is about 5 or 10 minutes from our house. http://www.friscosquare.com/

All the kiddo's attended the annual Diabetes Camp and Aaron had a blast! Thomas and Amanda were volunteers again this year and said they miss being campers. The camp was at new location this year so there was a lot of confusion. I think next year it will go more smoothly. Lainie will be old enough to attend next year too.

Aaron attended Horse Camp again. He had the same group of counselor's he had in the spring, and he had yet another great time. The Texas heat didn't seem to bother him a bit!

Miss Kim, Aaron and Lainie's reading tutor, lives on a farm in Celina, TX and invited Aaron over to go horseback riding with her girls and play with all the farm animals. He thought this was pretty cool! Aaron was sworn to secrecy because Miss Kim said if told anyone, all the other kids at the Reading Ranch would want to come over! She told me Aaron is like a nephew to her. She is great with Aaron and Lainie!

 

We took our 3 week trip to Europe. John took 2,500 pictures, so it may be awhile before I post any. We went to Naples, Rome, Messina, and Capri, Italy.  Piraeus, Athens, Rhodes, and Chania, Greece. Kussadasi, and Istanbul, Turkey. Amanda and I really liked Sicily.  Aaron was a little freaked out by Mount Etna, but had fun picking out some lava rocks to bring home. We all really liked the Sicilian Pizza! Thomas really liked Istanbul and all the sights we saw. We did stumble across a chocolate eatery in Istanbul and everything was handmade in the store, so it was pretty cool watching them make everything. They made coffee, candy, ice-cream and many baked goods. Yep, this is the one time we didn't have the camera, so we won't be sharing any photos. We sampled many items and needless to say everything was fantastic! All the places we visited were very unique and some were absolutely breathtaking. It was very nice spending time with the family and getting to visit grandma and grandpa and seeing their home.

July:

Amanda had her scoliosis surgery. It was a success. She went from 50 degrees to 5-10 degrees. She was in a tremendous amount of pain following the surgery and was in the ICU for 3 days and in the hospital for a total of 8 days. Each day she is doing a little better. It seems sleeping has been her biggest problem but even that is improving. Her blood sugars have been doing remarkably well considering the amount stress her body has been under. She had her first sleep-over the other night, so she must be feeling a little better! She goes back to see the surgeon on August 11th.  

Timothy and Kathy are now proud homeowners. They purchased a 3 bedroom home in Little Elm, TX. They also have a new puppy, Lady Bird. They are still trying to train her. She has chewed a few hoses and is still very hyper. Ella thinks the puppy is pretty funny but Audrey isn't quite sure what to think yet.

Aaron started a Martial Arts Program and it has really boosted his self confidence. He attends 3 days a week and is in the basic training program right now. The program focuses on respect and confidence building, as well as the the physical aspect. He gets so excited to go he puts his uniform on 4 hours early each day.

We have decided to have Aaron repeat 2nd grade this year at a new campus. Aaron has been struggling with reading since Kindergarten and has been going to the Reading Ranch for additional help since first grade. After many meetings with Aaron's school teachers and his reading tutor we have decided that it is in Aaron's best interest to repeat the grade. We are fortunate to have two elementary schools in our subdivision, so we put in a request for the other school and it was just approved.

Lainie will continue going to the Montessori School and will be starting a ballet class sometime this month or as Lainie would say "Ballerina School".  She is a princess!

August:

John just left for Philadelphia, PA for the rest of the week to attend a medical conference. He is looking forward to cooler weather since we seem to be stuck in the triple digits.

DFW Weather: 32 Days of Temps at or Above 100 Degrees and Counting

Parts of North Texas Experience Power Outages Tuesday

The DFW Metroplex blew the high temperature record off the charts -- posting a new record of 110 degrees Tuesday. I had previously said, "Crank up the air conditioner DFW!" but we're actually encouraged to turn up our thermostats to 78 or higher in an effort to conserve energy so that we don't have to go without power. Several parts of DFW experienced power outages on Tuesday.
ERCOT, the state's energy grid operator, set an electricity demand record Monday and it will probably be broken again over the next few days. ERCOT is asking North Texans to conserve energy -- especially between the hours of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Residents are encouraged to turn off all unnecessary lights and unplug appliances.
Energy Emergency
The state is now in an official energy emergency. At least 6,000 homes across North Texas are without power. With no relief in sight, DFW needs to heed the warnings or else brownouts and rolling power outages will occur.
Even Six Flags Over Texas closed the Mr. Freeze ride this week and will shut it down again when ERCOT requests energy conservation. The ride requires 2.4 million watts of electricity just to launch it.
Temperatures Expected to Rise
Dallas is hot and it's only going to get hotter. Wednesday's high could reach 111. North Texas is certain to break record high temps all week long. We can only hope that Tropical Storm Emily turns into a full-blown Hurricane and turns toward the Texas coast -- which is very unlikely at this point. (My apologies to the people in the property insurance business -- but we are desperate).
Excessive Heat Warning
The Excessive Heat Warning continues. Actual temperatures will hover around 108-110 the majority of the week, and heat indexes may be well above 115. Meteorologists predict that we could easily pass the 42-day record for triple-digit temps set back in 1980.
July
The only day that wasn't in the triple digits was July 1. The remainder of the month was 100 degrees or higher. DFW also set the record for all time for the warmest low temp at 86 degrees.
WEATHER SCOREBOARD Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Tuesday's high: 110* set new record.
Number of Days of 100 degrees or higher in DFW in 2011: 39
Consecutive Days of 100 degrees or higher in 2011: 32
Days over 100 Degrees in 1980: 69
Consecutive Days Over 100 in 1980: 42

FORECAST:
Wednesday: 111* R
Thursday: 109* R
Friday: 108* R
Saturday: 107
Sunday: 106
Monday: 105
and Tuesday it cools down to 104 - which will be day number 39.
R = a new record.


This sums it up.