Atlanta Symphony Orchestra String Quartet

The Okefenokee Heritage Center in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institute has brought the New Harmonies:  Celebrating American Roots Music Exhibit to Waycross. This exhibit brings the humanities to different regions of the state.  One thing that is happening as part of New Harmonies program is that various concerts are being given in our area. These concerts feature different genres of music like gospel, blues, country, folk, and rock.

The latest concert to be held was a classical music performance given by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra String Quartet. The kids and I decided to check it out.  The theme of the evening was American roots music and featured works by American composers.   The musicians played for about an hour and a half, and were superb.  We sat on the second row, so the kids had a great view of the performance.  They enjoyed the concert and were very well behaved (which earned them an ice cream after the event).  It was really nice to have this type of event be presented so close to home.

Georgia Sea Turtle Center

At the entrance

Over Labor Day weekend, the kids and I visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island.  The barrier islands of Georgia are a popular nesting spot for several different types of sea turtles.  The Georgia Sea Turtle Center patrols these nests, educates the public, and rehabilitates sick or injured turtles.  There are always a lot of activities going on at this center including day camps, beach clean-up efforts, and turtle walks (during nesting season).  I've been wanting to visit this place ever since it opened in 2007, but we've just never gotten around to it.  The trip was definitely worth the drive, and has left me wanting to smack myself for not having visited before.  I was just amazed by the great work being done here.

Stamping her bookmark

The visitor center is pretty small, but has neat and well-laid-out exhibits.  After paying a very reasonable entrance fee, we were all given bookmarks.  We took the bookmarks to different stations and used the stamp machines to fill in five blank spaces on our bookmarks.  These stamps told us what "fate" we would have if we were turtles.  Owen had the best luck of any of us- he was a male turtle who migrated to the Caribbean, had barnacles growing on him, and lived to be a sub-adult.  I had leeches and died as a juvenile- boo.  Another neat exhibit showed various items- like cans, rubber boots, glass bottles- and told us how long it would take these things to decompose in sea water.  I thought this was a very effective way to deter littering.

This little fellow was hanging out in a tank in the visitor's area.  He was the first turtle we saw, and he got the kids' attention fast.

 After learning all about sea turtles, we walked next door to the hospital.

In the hospital, large tanks on both sides of the room contained wounded or sick sea turtles.  In front of the tanks were little cards that told visitors the name of the turtle, why they were being treated, and detailed information about there treatment plan.  The most common reason for treatment were boat wounds and debilitation- although one turtle was there because it had been bitten a couple of times by a shark.  We hung out in the hospital for a little while so that we could hear the presentation given by one of the workers.  It was really very informative.
 

There was no shortage of turtles in the hospital.  Here were two of the loggerhead turtles- Tiburon and Shirley.  They were enormous.  Tiburon was the only full adult turtle present, and he weighed in the neighborhood of 150+lbs.  

 Tiburon was definitely a favorite.

 As we were walking back through the visitor's center to leave, some of the doctors brought Shirley into the examination room.  (There is a glass panel in the visitor's center so that you can see medical procedures being performed).  Someone was stationed on our side of the window to explain to us what was going on.  Shirley was getting her pre-release examination.

Carrying the turtles down to the beach

After our visit, we returned home where I raved about our trip to everyone and "liked" the Sea Turtle Center on Facebook.  Well, the very next day I see a notification on FB saying that they were going to release Shirley and Tiburon (the big one) on Friday afternoon.  So, the kids and I headed back to Jekyll on Friday afternoon for the release.  It was amazing.  There were so many people there, and everyone was cheering for these two turtles.

Waiting for the big moment

 Shirley was the first to be released.  Since there were so many spectators present, the staff walked her around a little so that all of the well-wishers could see her properly.  Once they started heading toward the water, we walked down to try and get a better look.  We had to take our shoes off and roll up our pants, but we had a pretty good view of the events.

There goes Shirley

 After Shirley was on her merry way, it was time for Tiburon to be released.

Tiburon seemed to struggle to get to the water more than Shirley- probably because he is so big.  When he finally made it, there were many cheers and whistles.

Seeing these turtles released was such a neat experience.  The kids and I are now enamored by sea turtles.  I am going to keep my ears open so that we can participate in future sea turtle programs.

Run for Honduras

 September is for football and 5ks.  I kicked off my fall running this past weekend at the Run for Honduras 5k and 1-mile.  Among the 5K runners were Quincy, Jessica, and myself.  The course was located at the Country Club and was really hilly.  In fact, you had to climb a pretty big hill at the end to get to the finish line.  I finished with a time of 25.50 and placed second in age group.  Quincy and Jessica both placed as well.

Following the 5K, there was a one-mile fun run.  Olivia and Natalie were registered to participate.  Owen had to sit out due to his recent surgery- and he was not happy about it.







The girls started off strong.  I tried to run with them but they left me in a cloud of dust.  They got tired pretty soon, though, so I was able to catch up.










Both girls gave a really good effort the entire race.

 As we were running back toward the finish, I spotted a familiar face on the course.  Someone had convinced his Aunt Quincy to let him walk the one mile.  The race organizers gave Owen a medal even though he wasn't a registered runner- I thought that was really nice of them.




Here are Olivia and I at the finish.  I really like this picture.  I have the not-so-secret hope that she will want to continue to run with me and that this being something that we do together.

And here's the bling shot.  Medals for all = successful morning.

My First Triathlon

After competing in the Megan's House Heels and Wheels duathlon for the past two years, I decided to attempt the tri this year instead.  I knew that the running part would be okay, and I've been cycling with a group of girls I work with, so I felt good about the bike.  The swimming was what I was worried about.  I am a terrible swimmer (and this was confirmed by my pathetic swim time).  Not only am I a poor swimmer, but the lake at Laura Walker Park has gators in it- so I was a little nervous about that.  That's not all, I also convinced myself that I would surely get either flesh-eating bacteria or the amoeba that goes up your nose and eats your brain from the water in the lake.  I'm really quite surprised that I got into the water at all- but I did.  Since I was registered in the "novice" category, I was in the last wave to start (with all the other newbies).  My quarter-mile swim was so bad that it was almost funny.  I got tired about a fourth of the way in.  I had planned to do the freestyle- but I ended up switching between dog-paddling and floating on my back.  Did I mention that my swimming leg was really bad?  I could not have been any happier to get out of that lake.


Once the swim was over I entered transition to get ready for my 13-mile bike ride.  I have done this ride as part of the duathlon, so I knew what to expect and the ride went well.  The same can be said for the 5k run- it was not new to me and I did okay.  I finished with a time of 1:38:28 and placed 2nd in the "novice" category.  I'm really kind of happy with this time.  Even though the swimming was bad, I actually enjoyed the triathlon.  I plan to do more of them.  Guess I better start hitting the pool.

Adiós, Appendix

On Monday Owen woke up with a slight fever and was complaining that his stomach was hurting.  I figured that he had a stomach virus and so I asked my Mom to watch him instead of send him to school.  When I went to pick him up that afternoon, Mama said that she didn't think it was a virus because he wasn't throwing up. Instead, he was grabbing his side and acting like it hurt to walk.  She suggested that it may be his appendix.  So, I took Owen to the doctor's office for him to be checked out.  The doctor examined Owen, and ruled out a virus.  She said she couldn't tell if there was something wrong internally without blood work- and they didn't do that at the office.  She suggested that we go to the emergency room.  And so we did.  We arrived in the ER at 7:30 and we sat... and sat... and sat for several hours.  During this time, they took a blood sample and ordered a CT scan.  Finally, the doctor came in and told us that Owen had acute appendicitis and that she had already called in the surgeon on-call.  As soon as she left the room, a parade of hospital staff began filtering in to prep our little buddy for his appendectomy.  I know he had to be miserable, but he was a real trooper.  They rolled Owen back to the operating room a little after midnight and he was out of surgery about an hour later.  He had to spend some time in recovery, so it wasn't until after 2 a.m. that we were able to see him- and he was zonked out.  Poor fellow.  He did great, though, and was even allowed to come home about 12 hours after surgery.  He is still recovering, but he seems to be bouncing back fast.  Still, he will be out of school for the rest of the week.  Monday was certainly a rough day for little Owen, and I am glad that it is behind us.

Harry Potter

If you'll recall last summer, Olivia and I began reading with my sister and her kids in the hopes of forming a kids reading group.  Unfortunately, this excellent idea fizzled out once school and extracurricular activities began.  There just didn't seem enough time to keep things going and stay on pace.  Since I wasn't reading with Olivia, I decided to re-read The Hobbit for my own enjoyment because the movie was about to come out and I wanted a refresher before I saw it.  This was in late October that I started reading.  Olivia saw me pick up the book and asked me to read it out loud so that she could hear it.  I obliged thinking that she would be uninterested and give up within a few minutes.  This didn't happen.  She ended up sitting there and listening to the whole first chapter of The Hobbit.  The next night she asked for the second chapter, and we kept going like this until the book was finished.  I couldn't believe that she actually sat there and listened to the whole thing!  She loved the book and we went and saw the movie together at the theater.  This got me thinking that if she could handle The Hobbit then she could handle the best series of books ever penned.  I'm speaking, of course, of the Harry Potter books.  We decided to give it a go.  So, last December we began reading The Sorcerer's Stone.  This went well, and we continued with the next book in the series, and then the next, and so on.  After completing a book, we would watch the corresponding movie.  Olivia REALLY got into it.  She started dressing up as Hermione around the house and using "spells" to turn the lights.  She even got in trouble at recess on day because she was chasing other kids around the playground with her "wand" (a stick).   We finished the last book of the series on the night before school started back.  Olivia was practically jumping up and down as I read the final, climatic scene.  We have really enjoyed reading these books together.  After being in "Harry" mode for half a year now, I'm not sure what we are going to do next.  She is already asking if we can start back over and read them all again.  We'll probably move on to another book or set of books.  It's going to be hard to top Harry, though.

Back to School

 It's that time of the year- time for back to school.  This year Olivia is in the first grade and Owen is in Kindergarten.  Both kids have been anxiously preparing for the first day of school.  Last week we went shopping for school supplies and a new outfit for the first day.  New gear in hand, the kids arrived at school on Monday and had a great first day.  Olivia and Owen both like their teachers and their classes.  The only complaint that I heard was that it took a long time for the bus to get from their school to mine.  Hopefully things will continue to go well and we will all have a great school year.