Great Circle of Life

It is now mid-September and our garden is starting the final leg of its journey in the Great Circle of Life.

Our tomatoes were grown on single vines, with a few plants reaching heights of over seven feet. They were "Big Boys" and Melynda says they are splended. (The kids and I take her word on that.) On the right, you can see that the taters (that'd be "poh-tay-toes" for all you Golem types) are well died back; each twig of a stem marks the hiding place of two or three fist-sized Yukon Gold beauties.

Hear you can see the raspberries and one-half of our world-class organic pest deterence system. (Don't forget: flossing with grass can keep your teeth shiny and sharp.)

Home of the Manly Man Workbench

Here we have the shop all decked-out in the latest drywall fashion-wear. Note the new stream-lined seams for this fall's season. For accessories, you can note the organizing gear on the wall providing a splach of color in yellow and blue.
This angle really shows-off the stylized lines and details of Pockets' world-class drywall work. You can see the work island in the middle with the Manly Man workbench and the table saw.

The Manly Man Workbench

Behold: the workbench that makes other workbenches feel girly.

A portion of the center can be removed and either the router table or the chop-saw can be inserted. Way cool.

The Next Cross Country Runner

Another first for the Cordry's: Duncan ran his first ever cross country race this morning. He did a great job and was the first MOC-FV runner across the line (40th place overall). There were probably close to 100 kids total in the race. Fortunately for all involved the Junior High girls ran separately. (I think the girls' winner would have given the boys a run for their money.) Duncan has been a real trooper about all of the training and the racing and really seems to enjoy it. He didn't want to take his uniform off last night after practice, he was so excited! It was great fun to be at a cross country meet again and especially to be cheering on my own child.

An Official POD member!

Well, here she is our official POD (Pride of the Dutchmen) band member! They marched for the first time last night at the home football game. They only did a small part of the competition show, but it was quite impressive! The only drawback is it is really hard to pick out your own child when they are all dressed exactly alike and are wearing hats. Oh well, they still looked great.

The Top 10 about our 15

The top 10 musings about our 15 year old.

10. We can't believe she could possibly be 15.

9. She still can laugh with her 12 year old brother.

8. She isn't very eager to drive, but. . .

7. She has her permit!

6. She loves all animals, but especially her cats and hamsters!

5. She manages to find the band director's tirades humorous sometimes.

4. She still takes forever to do her homework (when she has any).

3. She must be growing up because she didn't know what she wanted for her birthday.

2. She's getting faster in the mornings!

And the absolute top musing about our 15 year old:

1. She's fantastic, funny, fun-loving and we're fortunate to be her family!!!

First Day of School

We have a high school student! Wow! Welcome to the hamster wheel of high school activities! It really didn't take as long to reach this milestone as I thought it would. It seems like just the other day I was taking their picture as Savannah was entering 2nd grade and Duncan was entering Kindergarten. Savannah was pretty excited this morning. Of course, with band camp the last 2 weeks she feels like she has already started high school! I think Duncan would have been happy to extend the summer vacation, though. He has his first Cross Country practice this afternoon so it should be fun to hear how that went. I am glad that official practice has started because I don't think my achilles tendons can take anymore running for a while.

What did we do this summer?

Remember when summer used to take forever? Not this year!!! We've had a very busy summer out here in Iowa. Savannah has had a part-time job this summer on top of taking Driver's Ed in June and beginning band camp in August. So, the parents feel like their nice relaxing summer has been highjacked and the brother has wondered what happened to his big sister! We did manage to get in a few family moments, though. We spent Memorial Day weekend at Custer State Park in South Dakota and we camped with my parents at Palisades Park on the other side of South Dakota. Duncan and Savannah's favorite part about South Dakota is all the rocks. We have quite a deficit of nice rocks to climb on here in Northwest Iowa so finding great rocks to climb is a real treat. This particular rock is at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.

Band Camp

The last week of Band "Boot" Camp is almost over for Savannah. This has definitely been a full immersion experience! Camp started August 3rd and has gone 6 days a week since then. This picture shows them preparing for the day with a few warm-ups. (I wonder how many of the kids fell asleep?) The first week of camp was pretty trying for our new freshman, but she came home last Friday night (9:30pm) with a big smile on her face because the show was really coming together. It is really neat to see her be able to appreciate this unique experience. Can you find her in this picture??? She is the the 2nd person back on the line (white shirt, blue shorts).

Cordry Family Portrait

Whoops! This picture is a little old, but it will have to do for a while. This was taken about 2 years ago at one of our 1st degree mid-terms. Savannah is now (nearly) my height and Duncan is about as tall as Savannah is in this picture. We are all 2nd degree black belts now (but the belt doesn't look any different).

Now we're blogging!

Welcome to our blog. We thought we would give this thing a try and help our friends and family keep closer tabs on us. Pictures at Christmas don't really show how much the kids have changed! :-) They also don't keep everyone up on what's going on.