Up and Running (for a while anyway)

So lonely.

Matt "smoking it" on the autocross course. He came in 2nd in his class.

Chloe picking some flower while watching Daddy race.

I have the blog template loaded now. For some reason Blogger wouldn't take the original template for the blog and so I had to create a new one. The header may change, but that will be later.

Now, to keep everyone updated--

This past weekend we went to Matt's PCA autocross at Pocono Raceway. We took the RV and the dog and camped at the raceway campground. The weather was a bit chilly and we got to test out the heater in the RV (yes, it works). As seems to be the case lately, we were totally disorganized leaving for the trip and left about 4 hours later than planned. When we did plan to leave, we locked the cars keys in the house (with the house key on the keychain) and then set off the house alarm while trying to retrieve them. Luckily, we were able to get into the house, just not in time to call off the police who came to check things out.

We arrived at the campground after sunset on Friday to discover that it was deader than a doorknob. No one in sight. So, after an attempt to call the campground office, we chose our own campsite and set up camp. Matt had to rush off to go register for the autocross and other events, leaving Chloe, Lizzie (the dog) and I all alone in the middle of nowhere at a vacant RV park---creepy.

The events of the weekend were fun. We enjoyed seeing all the Porsches attending the event (there are several events over the weekend: a rally race, autocross, concours, & a driver's ed around the oval). Chloe refused to nap on Saturday, taking in all the cars and races, and promptly fell asleep on the table at Saturday evening's awards dinner. Chloe also enjoyed picking flowers while watching Daddy race and watching "Over the He*ge" in the car while watching Daddy race.

Despite the cold weather, we had a great time together as a family. Lizzie had a blast running free in the empty campground. Once we finally got going, it was a good weekend.

Today marked Chloe's 1st dance class. She had so much fun and she looked so darling in her leotard and tights. I was happy to learn that she followed instructions and listened to her teacher. Her only assignment to practice is not to scream while dancing!

The posts to the blog may not come as often this week. Due to some annoying issues, we have switched our ISP provider and will have some down-time until the new provider can install. No interenet!! AH!

When I return, I will have lots of postings as BeBe is coming to visit this weekend.

Under Construction

Yes, yes, I know. The blog is all screwy. I logged in today to find that my template was missing and when I tried to reload the template it still didn't work. I'm not that tech savvy so it will take some playing and some editing to get a new template loaded. So have patience (and mom, you don't have to call to tell me the blog is all messed up--I know!)

Classic Photos

During my down-time, I snapped plenty of pictures. These are two of my favorites.

We went to eat at a new Turkish restaurant that recently opened. We just happened to go on the very evening that they had their belly dancer perform. Chloe was mesmerized. The dancer tried to get Chloe to come dance with her but she wouldn't budge without Daddy. Chloe keeps talking about the belly dancer and imitating her. I had to tell her that her BeBe took belly dancing way back when. Chloe can't wait to belly dance with BeBe!

Another special-made shirt for Daddy's autocross race. We didn't get a lot of photos from the autocross (which Matt won) because Chloe wanted to leave after lunch for a nap.

Soccer Camp

Chloe was in a week-long soccer camp at the end of August. The camp was held each morning for an hour and a half with plenty of breaks for the toddler crew. The camp is well-known in our area and so many other kids and moms we knew were also participating. The camp is staffed by soccer (football) players from the U.K. Chloe's coach, Danny, hailed from Liverpool, but was born only a stone's throw away from Matt in Essex. Danny was only over for 9 weeks of camp and Chloe's group was his last. Teaching soccer to 10, 3 and 4 year old was like herding cats. I think he ran to his plane at the end of the week.

Chloe had great fun in camp. We've learned one thing about her, she's not about the game, she's about the accessories. She adored her soccer socks and shin guards and was very possessive of her ball. She had to be reminded frequently that soccer is a "foot" game and not about the hands. After the reminders she would kick the ball a few times and then pick it up and hug it the remainder of the time informing anyone that came within her vicinity that it was her ball. Coach Danny and Matt agreed that perhaps goalie was the position for Chloe.

Each day at camp focused on a country and its specific skills in soccer. This was taken on "England" day when Chloe was sporting a shirt I made especially for the day.

So fast.

Chloe decided to pull out the "kicks" for when Daddy came to camp. Of course, as soon as she was on the pitch, she picked up the ball again.

Having fun with Coach.

Out of Touch

After being grounded, it's great to be back in cyberspace! The hard drive on my laptop had to be replaced and so I had to go without a computer for almost two weeks! When Matt was home and not on his computer (which is rare), I could check emails, etc. otherwise, all I had to connect me was my cell phone and I hate typing emails on it.

To me everything is and always should be a learning experience. So, here's what I learned having my hard drive crash:

• BACK UP YOUR FILES AND DATA!! While my documents and pictures were saved, all of my digital scrapbooking goodies (i.e. pages, embelleshments, what I had completed of Chloe's lifebook & scrapbook) were lost along with copies of a newsletter I work on and all my specially purchased fonts. I am so crushed about losing my scrapbook items. Matt and I went out and bought an external hard drive to back-up our files and I plan on doing it quarterly.


• RELOADING SOFTWARE IS A WHIP! It's taken me hours to reload my software on my computer. I have had to search high and low for all the disks and product keys. I also learned a valuable lesson--purchasing software on-line and downloading it can be costly if your computer crashes because you have to repurchase the software. For instance, after purchasing my laptop 18 months ago and my initial trial of M*croso*t Of*ice ran its course I upgraded on-line to the full version. Well, when my hard drive got replaced everything was set back to day 1 of my laptop and I lost the full version and without the program or product key I was up a creek without a paddle. Apparently M*croso*t has had some complaints about this and now when you purchase products on-line they will let you purchase a product key for $12.50 more. They didn't offer this option 18 months ago. I opted for the CD version this time instead.

Everything is a learning experience. Its just too bad that I had to loose some important items to learn these lessons. I will be updating the blogs with the latest and greatest info. Stay tuned.