Back to School!

 I got Mark some "monster" trail mix and wrote him a note saying "I hoped he didn't get any monsters in his class." He never got around to reading the note that day so wasn't sure how the trail mix tied into back to school but I think he has read it by now... Lydia and I will miss these guys!

His backpack looks so big!  

He wanted a Pirate ship one but I couldn't find a good one so I found a Pirate patch and my friend Laura put it on there. He loves it! 

School has been in session now for three days.  Mark is teaching 7th and 8th grade again. Originally he was going to be teaching just 8th grade but that didn't pan out.  He wasn't too upset but would have like to know awhile ago instead of when he went back for teacher work days. I think he did get some monsters but hopefully they won't bother him too much. He can handle it.

We found out Jared's Kindergarten teacher Monday afternoon right before we attended Open House. Jared's Open House was from 4:00 - 6:00 and Mark's was from 5:30 - 7:30. At Kindergarten camp Jared spent a morning with 3 different teachers. He ended up getting Mrs. Franklin who was his favorite of the three he spent time with so he was pretty thrilled.  When I read him the letter he said "I am having the best luck!" He also got put in the same class as his friend Tyler (Shaw, his family just moved here from Utah) from church and could not be happier about it. I am so glad they ended up together. It is nice to have a built in buddy. When we got to the classroom we found Jared's name on a table and he was sitting next to Tyler so he was so happy.  My first impression of Mrs. Franklin was that she seemed a little stand offish. We had brought a cup cup filled with chocolate to her and when Jared gave it to her she seemed rather unimpressed. I tired to engage her in some basic questions and she did not seem to want to talk. I don't know if she was nervous or distracted but it was not a great impression. In my mind I had imagined kindergarten teachers to be really cheerful and welcoming and excited and she was none of those things. One very friendly girl (we had never met before, she was probably a 2nd grader) asked Jared who his teacher was and after we told her she said, "She has a really clean classroom, she is really good at cleaning up." We didn't know how to respond to that....  Clean is good? We left the classroom after dropping off his school supplies and some attempted conversations and walked around the school a bit. They had popsicles outside so we grabbed some and then Mark went off to his Open House and we went home.

The first day of school was Wednesday and sadly it was not a very good day for Jared. I asked him to rate the day on a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being awesome and he gave the day a 5. I was so sad for him! He told me that two of the kids at the table were teasing him. It made me want to cry and it made me so mad!  He couldn't tell me what they said but it really affected him. As I asked him questions it seemed like school was fine, it was just those 2 kids so that was something.  I asked the same question yesterday and he gave the day a 7 and today he gave it a 9.  I think he will be just fine once he gets into the routine of school. I know that he was completely exhausted on Wednesday. I walked him in each day and met him out front and by Friday his teacher smiled at me and said "Have a great weekend"so we are making progress. I mentioned to Julie (Tyler's mom) that Jared said some kids were teasing him but I wasn't sure what they said and she said Tyler said the same thing. I asked her if he knew what they said (I was dying of curiosity) and she said she would ask him.  Turns out they said that Jared was too tall to be in Kindergarten and that Tyler was too short so he should be in preschool. Jared is a pretty sensitive kid so he took it pretty hard.  He is also not assertive at all. I told him that if they teased him all three days this week we could talk to Mrs. Franklin but that he needed to tell them to please stop and say why it was bothering him. Julie told me that Tyler would stick up for Jared if they did it again.  She said he is s sweet goofy kid but an explosive one too, he would call those kids out if he felt it was needed.  I can't imagine Jared ever doing that so I am glad Tyler is there. Thankfully they did not say anything again. I hope Jared can settle into a good routine and have a positive experience at school.  I didn't cry as I dropped him off but did feel really sad as I walked back to the car.  Its such a long school day.  School starts at 8:00 and he gets out at 2:00. I so wish he could do half day we will get into a good routine and I know he will be fine.  We did a fun little back to school photo session a few days before school started.  Jared was such good sport.  It was fun to take him to school and do this so we didn't have to the first day. 

I didn't need this many pictures of him starting school but I took them anyway.  

 We did this apple on the head photo last year and he wanted to do it in every picture this year...

 Baker Butler Bears

His teacher sent home this little poem about "jitters" and some "jitter glitter" from Open House. Jared loved it! He put some under his pillow and then kindly sprinkled some under Mark and mines pillows.  I am happy he is in school but its a big adjustment for us. We have never really had to be ready for the day early in the morning. Jared is doing great getting dressed (he recently learned how to tie his shoes and loves doing it!!) and is ready on time but I am having to get ready super fast if I want to exercise before I take him which I do.  We did pretty well this week, Lydia was actually the slowest one. So far in her life I have rarely left the house with her without doing her hair but this week I had to and I will just have to let it go, its fine! I hope it turns out to be a great year! 

Around the house

Since our new house is on 2 acres, a majority of them very wooded, we will never be done with yard work. Never.  We have accepted this but are trying to get a hand on things and get some of it under control.  Last week Mark worked on clearing out some of the little trees right behind and around our house.  There are some larger ones that we will need to have removed so they don't damage our house in a big wind storm but he was focusing on the little ones. The goal was to create a clear sight line from the house to the tree fort below.  A teacher he works with happens to live about 2 miles up the road and he has done some work clearing his property and came over to help Mark.  They cut lots of smaller trees with only one injury to Mark. A tree did not fall they way they thought it would rather it fell straight down so all the branches hit Mark as it fell. Not fun but he came out fine just had one big bruise on his back. Fortunately it did not hit his neck.  So that has been a big project.  It looks so different with the sight lines. I am glad I can be in the house or on the deck and see Jared and Lydia down playing below. I think they will be there a lot this Fall when the weather changes.

 It was really hard to see the fort before they cleared the trees.  I love how easy it is now.

We have also been working on clearing the side yard. There is this small section of property on the side of the house. It has little fence separating it from the front yard.  It is on a slope (our whole property is really) but a good space. We haven't really gone over there much as it is really overgrown and kind of out of sight but it occurred to me that it would be a nice play area for preschool so now we have been clearing it.  The previous owners had put a small little pond back there that we didn't want and some bushes.  Mark kindly built a sandbox for preschool and we put it there. We have been leveling the ground for the sandbox and trying to cut the grass/weeds.  Now I just need to decide if I want to fill it with sand (more messy and needs some kind of cover) or little rocks.

 There were more ugly bushes we ripped out.  Mark was leveling the land and had to cut up do many roots. I hope we cut them off and now prevented lots of foundation damage...

This pond was filled with rocks and lots of mucky water.  We did not want it at all. Mark shoved gross water and huge rocks out of it.

 No more crazy overgrown bush! 

This area was so overgrown!  Our "yard" sometimes feels like this, if we don't stay on top of it it will take over! But we do love having some much space.

Pond gone! 

Mark is also clearning a path for preschool. Since our basement is a walk out basement we would rather have the preschool kids use that door and not go through our house at all.  But as stated earlier, our whole property is sloped. We have been trying to figure out how to put in an affordable, lasting path.  Because of the slope it seems like most "paths" would just wash away in a rain storm. So instead of going straight down closer to the house which would be the shortest walkway he is sloping it across the "grassy weeds".  It is a big project and hopefully won't cost too much money or wash away in a big storm. I know going across instead of straight down will make a difference. He has been so kind to work on all these preschool projects for me.

Preschool path started

Besides yard work we have been working inside too.  We got the crown molding up for our cabinets and it looks really nice, much ore finished. Not there is not a gap between the top of the cabinets and the ceilings.  We also got the baseboards back in and hung a fancy pendant light.  W need to fill in all the nail gun holes with putty and re-paint the crown molding but we will get there.  We are probably ] 95% done now. I love our kitchen.

We had some non work fun too.  We have been playing lots of hide n go seek and are so happy to live  in a house with lots of good hiding places. Jared and Lydia ask to play all the time. Its a fun family activity.  They are also very into science experiments so I am trying to get back in the habit of doing them.  

This one was experimenting with water.  We colored some water pink and some blue then dropped it into different substance.  Water, saving cream, oil and vinegar.  Oil was the most fascinating to them as the two would of course not mix.  It was fun.

And we celebrated Mark's birthday.  I made crepes for breakfast while he slept in and we had a birthday BBQ with some friends.  He wanted tri-tip and grilled vegetables for his birthday dinner and he did a great job making it. I did make his ice cream cake and it turned out great.  It was great to have the space to have more than just one family over.  We hope to do it a lot more in our fantastic kitchen/dining room. We love celebrating Mark and are so glad he is ours.

Onesty Swimming Pool

Yesterday was what we thought was Mark's last day before school started. (He actually was supposed to attend some school district wide subject meetings and totally ditched them (unknowingly)).  Whoops!  It coincided nicely with Jared and Lydia filling their charm jars from good deeds so we had a "last day of summer break with Daddy hurrah" at one of the city swimming pools.  We had not gone yet this summer and had a great time.  Jared was thrilled that he was tall enough to ride the water slide this year and had a great time going down it again and again. Mark and I tried it out too.  Last year neither kid really enjoyed the lazy river and this year they were both happy to float in it. Jared also completed the obstacle course.  He struggled his first time or two attempting it but then figured it out and had a great time.  We have really spent a lot of time in various forms of water this summer and I think Jared and Lydia have gained a lot of confidence. That and 2 sessions of swimming lessons has helped too. It has been fun. I am not a huge water person, but have had a lot of fun with them. We may try to go one more time before the pools close for the season.

 Lydia has become quite proficient at floating on her stomach underwater.  She can hold her breath pretty long. She doesn't know how to swim exactly but she is pretty close.  She loves to jump into the pool and have Mark or I catch her, mostly Mark. Yesterday she and Jared were both jumping in and Mark convinced her he didn't need to catch her. He had her practice trying to get her feet on the bottom of the pool then push herself up and she figured it out and did great. We called them pencil dives.

Virginia Beach

The last thing we wanted to try to do before Mark went back to school was go to the beach.  Most people around here prefer to go to Outer Banks in North Carolina. I am sure they are very nice but we decided to try out Virginia Beach. The funny thing is that the beach we went to is in the very Southern corner of Virginia so we were only like 45 minutes to an hour away from Outer Banks.  Maybe next time we will drive the extra miles to get there.  Needless to say it was a prefect beach day. Cloudy with nice breeze that occasionally let the sun shine through. It was in the mid 80's and the water temperature was awesome. It was so comfortable. Jared and Lydia were so happy to play in the sand and splash/wade in the water.  Jared worked hard at "defeating" the waves as they came crashing on us.  He was really brave and totally willing to go out farther and farther.  It is really great that we now have the option to go the beach as a vacation or even just a day trip like this week.  Its a LONG day trip (3 hours to get there) but way more accessible than Colorado ever could be. It was fun to see Jared and Lydia play at the beach.  They both loved being there. The sand was so nice and clean, parking was cheap (5 dollars for the day) and right by the beach hardly a walk at all and they had nice bathrooms and rinse off showers.  I tend to stress about parking a lot and find it so annoying to have to pay. This was a great solution.  It was a really nice outing and I am not one who dreams about spending all my vacations on a beach. I like the beach but it is not my top destination but I had a great time too.  We are so glad we made it out and hope to make more trips in the future.

On the way out we stopped at Hobby Lobby in Richmond (I really love that store. I found a lot of stuff for preschool and it was so much more affordable than Michaels or Jo-Anns which we have in Charlottesville) and then Tucanos in Newport News for a birthday lunch for Mark.  This really cut into our beach time but we still had a lovely time. Next time we will go straight to the beach and play longer.

Jared's prayer

I asked Jared to put the silverware away for me as I unloaded the dishwasher. We had just gotten back from a day at the temple and were trying to finish things up, eat dinner and get ready for bed.  He started putting away the silverware and quickly dropped a fork and it landed on his foot. Not a huge deal but still painful. He was really tired from being out all day and riding in the car so much that I fully expected a huge meltdown as is his norm.  To my surprise he calmly walked away.  Not a sound after the initial "ow!"

About 1 minute later he walked back into the kitchen calm and smiling. I asked him if he felt like screaming into a pillow (which I often want to do when something stupid happens like that) and he said:

 "No, I said a prayer and felt better"

I melted. I pulled him over to me and asked him what he prayed for.  He said he went into his room but would have to turn on the light so he walked out, looked at the front room, decided it was perfect and went there to say his prayer. He said something along the lines of:
"Heavenly Father, Thank thee for this day, help me to not have any bad moments and feel better."

I asked him if his prayer was answered and he said yes it was, he felt much better.  We talked a little bit about prayer and how sometimes prayers are answered really quickly like his and other times they aren't.  I asked him if he could pray anytime he wanted, like when he was at a school and needed help.  He said yes and that he didn't even have to say the prayer out loud just in his head.   It was such a special moment. He then put the cherry on top by saying.  "I feel like I want to cry." I said "because your foot hurts?" He said "No, because I feel so good inside, I think that was the first time I felt the spirit."  So sweet. What a great example to me. I was being totally worldly about it and he put me in my place (unknowingly and very sweetly).  I asked him if he wanted me to write a blog post about this experience so when he was older he can read over it and remember that special feeling.  He asked me to please write that he was 5 years old. (Done.)

Parenting is hard. It really is. But there are these special moments that really help make it worth it.

Day in D.C.

One thing I really wanted to do this summer was take some day trips into Washington D.C. . It is such a fun city with so much to see and do. Typically when we head over that way it is to go to the temple so we don't have time to go into the city. We finally made a trip on Monday.  I had hoped to do more than one trip before school stared but no such luck. Mark goes back next Wednesday on the 12th. We headed out around 8:40 stopping for donuts on the way and got downtown around 10:45. We really didn't have any traffic coming in and it wasn't too bad going out either.  It would have been nice to stay longer but Mark really wanted to get out of there before traffic started so we left before 2:00.  Jared and Lydia were so sad when we left.  They both asked if we could stay longer and we told then not to worry we would be back. I hope we do a better job getting over there this coming year and next time we go we stay longer.  I know they are young but they really enjoyed it! Lydia was so goofy. As we were walking around she kept asking "where is D.C.?" We tried to explain to her that we were walking thorough it but she could not quite grasp it. I wondered if she associates D.C. with the temple and wondered why we didn't see it. If she didn't see the temple how could we be in D.C.?

We did see some of the monuments but our main focus was the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.  We planned on going there then stopping by the National Building Museum (which looks super fun but is not free like the others) but got sidetracked by the National Archives Museum. Mark was telling Jared what the cool building was and Jared said wanted to go in so we did.  We didn't check out very many exhibits but instead waited in line for the main attraction, seeing the original/official Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. It was great.  It was about a 25 minute wait so not bad at all. It was really neat to see those documents.  I am glad Jared wanted to stop, I didn't even know they were on display there.  It was great.  The air and space museum was fun. Jared and Lydia have not shown a lot of interest in Outer Space things but Ihtink it is mostly because Mark and I aren't that interested in it.  We loved seeing the NASA exhibits and feeling the moon rock and they have a room of "time and navigation" with ships so our little Pirate was super stoked!

 National Archives Museum 

Air and Space Museum

 Tired, but keeping good attitudes!

 It was fun to walk around the city and we were blessed with really nice weather. It was hot but not humid at all which makes all the difference.  It was a great outing. I am glad we did it, glad that Jared and Lydia loved it and that we all can't wait to go again! Its just sonic to have that option. We were talking to a man in the ship room and he asked if we were going to the National History Museum and I said we had gone last time we were in D.C. .  He was actually visiting from Sacramento and had heard of Yuba City, even been there. It was a fun coincidence. I just love that we do have the option to do a fun day trip to a cool city like D.C. .

On the way home we stopped at Moo-Thru a very popular local ice cream place.  It is about 45 minutes from our house so we had not gone before but a lot of people here rave about it. It was delicious! They put a lot of focus on the fact that they have cows "on hand" (grazing nearby) and use lots of fresh cream. I would not make a special trip to go there just for ice cream but it is a convenient stopping place on the way home from D.C.