Cleaning Extravaganza

Happy Sunday!

Best and Worst

Molly's worst - leaving Lake George
Nick's worst - feels like Thursday but it's only Wednesday
Natalie's worst - Molly and Dave had trouble getting to the house
Mike's worst - fourth period Algebra 2 students
Seeger's worst - there was spicy shrimp in his food
Tracy's worst - had trouble using the prehistoric microwave for her popcorn
Bill's worst - waking up and still having pain in his kidney
Dave's worst - coming around the corner and seeing the blocked road and seeing Molly's face
Dave's best - walking around the back ho and seeing the house
Molly's best - having extra time with family
Nick's best - the Greek unit and getting to be the leader of the group project
Natalie's best - having a good dinner with guests from afar
Mike's best - having dinner with family
Seeger's best - felt like he was flying on the swings at recess
Tracy's best - getting to be here with all you fine people and getting to better know Dave and Molly
Bill's best -spending more time with Molly and trying to get know Dave better

A Letter from Camp Tecumseh

One of the 367,810 reasons why I love to send my kids to Camp Tecumseh is because the counselor's take time to write a letter to parents, summarizing their campers experiences of the week. I think this is so cool! Here is the letter we received from Nick's counselor, after his week at Camp:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Kubatski,

Greetings from Camp Tecumseh where the stars shine bright, the leaves are green, and the brotherhood of Ottawa Cabin grows strong with each passing day. The "Ottabros" engulfed themselves in Camp T culture this week with the crazy campfires, the traditional baked oatmeal, and the Blazer unit which has been going strong since the beginning of time.

Nick was quite the active athletic in the mornings as he participated in his clinics. He had flag football, basketball, and water polo. Nick had a blast with Jared in flag football and liked being able to cool off in the pool for water polo after two clinics in the heat!

Afternoons brought the cabin back together as the Ottabros did activities as a group each afternoon and night. Nick got to swim at either the pool or lake every day for unit swim time. On top of that, we had extra blob time at the lake on the trampolines and we swam at the pool Wednesday and Thursday night! When Nick wasn't swimming, he was playing fun games like tennis, baseball, circle rules football, or carpetball - all great activities.

It was great to welcome Nick to the Ottabro family this week at camp! He is an extremely nice kid and fun to talk to. As a third year camper, he was able to help spread the camp culture to others who were experiencing Tecumseh for the first time. Nick always had a positive attitude and was helpful at meal times. His helpfulness will be missed and I hope he has a great school year and hope to see him back next summer!

God bless,
John

P.S. "Georgia, Georgia, we have peches!!"

Homework

Every school year, both boys are encouraged to read at least 20 minutes per day on their own. Some teachers assign this as homework, others just suggest it. This year, Seeger's teacher makes the reading assignment twice per week. And twice per week, she asks the students to write in their journals for 20 minutes. Seeger loves reading but he really loves writing so he is excited about this assignment. At least he usually is.

Last Thursday was a rough day. I was late picking up Seeger and we had to rush home and scarf down dinner before heading back in to town. We didn't get home until later in the evening and Seeger had to do his writing, an oral assignment, and he had to study for a math test. He wasn't happy when he did his writing assignment:

Homework

Homework is alwasy too much. Because usualy I don't get to do anythign fun exept recess and specils. I will beg if you don't do it until monday. i really want to do the FUN stuff like playing outside. I am really literaly goin to bed after I leaveo ff here at 8:44 at night. Past my bedtime! I'd really like to set up my dinosaurs too. I will also have to read my poem to my parents after this 20 minutes of writing. I will give a secret picture if you beat until Monday.

The nice thing about his teacher is that she always responds to his journal writing:

Best and Worst

Nick's worst - doing a bunch of errands after TKD + has his second cold since the beginning of the school year
Seeger's worst - opening math folder and realizing there is homework that wasn't turned in
Mike's worst - had to call a parent of a student and had to meet with insurance people at work
Natalie's worst - too many meetings at work today + Seeger has a cold sore before the wedding
Nick's best - Wednesday morning and felt like the morning was longer and got to do more stuff
Seeger's best - getting complimented for his good test score
Mike's best - good family dinner and going to work after having a good sub so didn't have to deal with a lot of crap
Natalie's best - wearing a new dress to work and watching Nurse Jackie with friends

Top 10 Reasons Why This Week is Great

1.       It was a four day work week.

2.       We saw American Idiot at the IU Auditorium on Tuesday.

3.       We brought the boys back to the Auditorium on Thursday, to hear Coach Crean speak.

4.       I’ve connected with so many different friends from different parts of my life. I’m feel so fortunate.

5.       Nicklas and I revisited Rebecca Black’s YouTube video so we’ve been singing the Friday song all week.

6.       A friend brought me Jiffy Treet at work.

7.       I saw the Hudziak family.

8.       I took the boys shopping for picture day clothes and picked up some Target clearance rack   items for myself.

9.       I finished reading the Perks of Being a Wallflower. I’m really looking forward to the movie.

10.   Marty and Lindsey are coming to visit this weekend.

11.   San Francisco trip is booked.

12.   I think I found a drum teacher for Seeger.