Back to School

I got Mark some of these limited edition mint chocolate cookies for his back to school treat.  I put a note on them that said "Your commit-MINT to teaching is awesome, hope its a great year."  I hope he enjoys teaching 7th grade this year.

Jared and Lydia had awesome first days of school.  I took them the first day and while I left my house on time, we got there late (but not terribly so) because the parking lot was totally full and backed up. I technically got to the school on time but it just took forever to get into the lot.  We passed a few more prepared friends who arrived on time and had already dropped off their kids on our way in.  We dropped Lydia off with her teacher outside and then I walked Jared in.  Our morning went nice and smooth until we got to the parking lot but it didn't matter, they weren't keeping to a strict schedule that first 20 minutes or so I am sure.

Lydia loves Ms. Hunter and going to school.  I always ask the kids to rate their days on a scale of 1 - 10 and Lydia gave her first day a 20 and her second a 120.  There were no tears, just a happy girl going to school.  She is happy to make new friends and see old friends and came home with all smiles on her daily behavior chart the last 2 days.  I think she will have a great year.  She is such a sweet girl.  When I was driving home the song "marry that girl" came on and I had a real moment of sadness, almost crying that she has reached this milestone. I know she is 5 and we have so many years ahead of us but I know that its true, that time goes so fast!  That you blink and then the years have all gone by. When I heard that song it just hit me that time is going to go so fast that before I know it someone is going to be asking us to marry her!  It just got me, I did not finish listening to that song. I am looking forward to all the years I do have with her and Jared too.

She is an adorable Kindergartner and I love these pictures.

Jared predicted that his first day would be a 3 and I was happy to hear him give it a 7 instead.  High praise from him.  He gave his second day an 8!  He really did get nice kids in his class.  He is confident and has had only good things to say.  I was sad for him that he had such low expectations and thrilled it turned out better than he thought it would.  He said his favorite thing in class was daily quiet time where kids could choose to sleep, read or do art. I think its good that they have some free time each day.  It's a long day.

 

2 years later and I think I am finally used to seeing him with glasses.  It seriously took me this long to feel like they should be there. He is a silly (tall) handsome kid.

Once Lydia and Jared were both in school I wanted to start choosing a "back to school" theme.  Sort of a motto for them to remember all year. I have seen people put together awesome back to school dinners where they introduce a theme and have cool items to match it and I didn't make it that level but we did a fun FHE lesson about it and made sure to have Mark give them Back to School blessings.  Our theme for the year is "Hold to the Rod."  We plan on memorizing the song and verse to match it.  The last 2 years Mark and I have made kissing hands for Jared and made Lydia one this year too.  I laminate them and put them in their backpacks so they will have a kiss from us with them all year.

  

After I dropped Jared and Lydia off I came home to finalize everything for my preschool orientation.  I planned it for 9:00 AM so I could have a good distraction from missing Lydia and Jared. It went pretty well.  One of my families canceled because they felt the drive was just going to be too much.  They live down by UVA so I can understand that. A class of 7 will be fine. 8 would be great but 7 is more manageable. One student was out of town and one thought it started at 10:00 so only 5 came to orientation.  It was good for the families to meet each other and the students to have some time in the classroom.  I hope it helps them feel comfortable so next weeks drop off will go smoothly.  One mom wants to stay here (not in the classroom but on site) the whole 3 hours so if her son needs her she is here. I told her this was fine but I don't really recommend it.  I think its better to have a clean break so they know there is no leaving until the day is over but oh well.  She plans on staying out of sight.  We will see. The activities went well and I have everyones paperwork so we are set.  I am exited to teach but keep thinking of how weird it will be to not Have Lydia there or Cam since they were both there the last 2 years. I finished preparing everything for next week today while Jared and Lydia were in school which was so nice. I loved it!  It was amazing to have all this uninterrupted time to work and they day went so fast. I loved not feeling like I was neglecting Jared and Lydia by working on preschool stuff. I think teaching preschool will be great to help keep my busy and that I will love having Mondays and Fridays to myself! I met up with some great ladies for lunch and hope we can do it again soon.  The year is starting off great!

Last days of Summer vacation

Monday was mine and Mark's 13th wedding anniversary.  It was a also a really busy day.  We had fun friends over in the morning for a little brunch play date and then Jared and Lydia earned some money.  About 2 weeks ago a member of the 1st ward posted an opportunity for kids to earn 15$ for doing a voice recording.  I signed both Jared and Lydia up and told them it was the easiest 15 dollars they would every earn.  A device told them about 25 commands to say and after they repeated and had them all recorded they were given 15 dollars cash. They were thrilled.  Lydia got a little stressed because she kept saying "Hello" instead of "hey" which is what the prompt told her to say.  A drink of water and her blanket took care of it and she finished strong.  It was a different kind of opportunity and I am glad they could do it.

Julie had kindly agreed to watch Jared and Lydia so Mark and I could go out to lunch to celebrate. We had a gift certificate to BoneFish Grill and went there. I am not a fish person so I was pretty conflicted about what to order. I didn't really want fish but was at a fish place.  I ended up ordering Fish tacos and a salad and Mark got a grilled salmon. We planned on splitting both. The Chex accidentally cooked Shrimp tacos so the waiter bought our the fish tacos and the shrimp tacos. Both were not to my liking.  The salmon was fine but I like Mark's better. So should I ever go there again, which is highly unlikely I will disregard the fact that it is a fish pace and get something from land! Despite the bad ordering (for me, Mark ate and liked it all) I was happy to get to have some time with Mark. He is awesome and makes my life so enjoyable.

Our lunch date was cut a little short as we had more things we had to attend to.  Monday happened to be the Solar Eclipse which we did not want to miss.  The school district had given Mark a pair of glasses so we figured we were set but it turned out to be a pair of faulty ones.  Luckily a friend was more prepared than me and had 2 extra pairs we could use.  I am glad she was more on top of things. There sure was a lot of hype about the eclipse which I found odd.  It sounded like this was a once in a life time thing but really it appears to be happening again in like 7 years!!  I feel pretty confident I will still be around 7 years from now but if not its a good thing I saw this one.  That being said I did enjoy watching it very much and Jared and Lydia seemed to enjoy it too.  We watched most of it with the Shaw's since Jared and Lydia were already there.  I saw some cute ideas with cute themed snacks and cool projects later in the day but missed the boat on that one.  It's okay though, I can try again in 2024!

Then if that wasn't enough things for one day we had Open House at Baker Butler. Both kids were excited to go, especially Lydia.  Ever since we found out she had Ms. Hunter she has been super excited for Kindergarten. We go to the school just after 3:00 and went to drop off all their school supplies. Lydia happily explored her classroom while I filled our the first of many needed forms. After visiting Lydia's class we headed over to Jared's class at least for the foreseeable future.  Enrollment for 2nd grade is really high this year and it sounds like another teacher is being hired to form another class.  This is unfortunate for many reasons and I am feeling more concerned for Jared.  He really lucked out with kids he really liked ending up in his class and he seems to really like his teacher.  He could stay in the same class and maybe it won't even happen but each class has around 24 students so it seems likely.  We didn't stay at school too much longer, just checked in with their new bus driver. Lydia is dying to ride the bus and they will every now and then but definitely not in the morning since we are not ready nor feel the need to be ready at 7:13 when is stops here. I wanted the bus driver to know who they were though and to let her know she should not expect them in the morning and not to wait. Mark had to go to his Open House from 5:30 - 7:30 so we left pretty quickly.

On Tuesday we finally got around to making popsicles.  This seemed like one of the easier items on our summer fun list but we barely got it done before school started. Technically I still have almost a month till summer is over but I don't think many more items will be checked off.  We picked three recipes to make and then they took forever to freeze. We made Nutella popsicles, creamy lemonade popsicles and cookies and cream.  They were all delicious.  I can not pick a dinner entree to save my life but muffins and treats, no problem! We ended up eating them for an after school treat the first day of school but they were made before then!

 

summer week 9

The end of summer vacation.  This was our most "lazy summer days" kind of week.  Mark went back to school for meetings and classroom set up/planning. Jared, Lydia and I bought school supplies one day.  We stopped by Baker Butler one morning for back to school pictures then went out to donuts to celebrate after. We visited the library to turn in our last summer reading challenge. Went to a friends house for lunch, slip n sliding, and playing, and Mark took Jared and Lydia swimming twice.  I ordered a few new items for preschool and that got Jared and Lydia down in the basement and they rediscovered how fun our basement can be. Mark and a friend also installed a new sliding glass door in the basement. It was a fun relaxing week. I could not handle a whole summer of that much free unplanned time but the week before school was a great time to do it. I know I am one of the few people who don't really look forward to summer vacation but each year keeps getting better and better.  It's so great.  Charlottesville is for sure a big part of it. For all the negative press it got last week I really love this place and the people here.

New door.  This project like all projects we take on, ended up being more complicated than hoped for but they got it done and it looks great.  The old door really needed to go. Nobody could open it from the outside which was really unhelpful.  Its especially great that it is done before preschool starts.

Surfer Girl. 

These girls have grown a lot in their friendship. I'm glad they can be buddies a majority of the time now. And, I want a porch swing or in my case a "deck swing" since I don't have a porch, so badly!  

 I hope we make it happen this Fall.

Jared did such an awesome job on his reading challenge he is sad it is over.  Lydia did great too.  I love this summer tradition. We will see what theme they pick next year!

Up the wall and onto the ceiling. He was very proud of this. And he of course chose money pieces. 

Lydia has been into Koalas the last 6 months or so so this is an eucalyptus tree,  I tried to add a Koala at the beginning but she wanted to wait.

 

A common sight this summer. I loved it. 

We also got more....

Peaches!  Because we didn't already have enough.  Some friends let us know of a great deal they found on their way home from Pennsylvania.  A bushel of peaches for 15 dollars.  Mark was pretty excited.  It was really nice of them to pick us up some and he did a great job getting them all cut up and then finding spots for all of them in the freezer.  We currently have 17 one gallon Ziploc bags in our freezer.  There is a distinct difference between smoothies with fresh and canned peaches.  It is great that Mark is willing to do all the work.  

Summer week 8

Week 8 for us included hours of reading, kid dates, a trip into Washington DC, Kindergarten camp, celebrating Mark's birthday at Walnut Creek, paddling/floating down 8 miles of the Shenandoah River, preschool news, finishing cleaning the grout in the kitchen (a much more time consuming task than I hoped it would be), a rough Saturday which included a complete stranger crashing into a tree at the top of our driveway, and a Bishopric BBQ.

This was the last week of summer vacation for Mark so I tried to get him to choose our outings.  Monday was pretty rainy but Mark and Jared had made plans to go frisbee golfing with the missionaries so they went and got soaking wet.  They played 9 holes then called it.  Lydia and I went over to Barnes and Noble to read some books and enjoy a hot chocolate.  She is always so excited to get hot chocolate and then starts drinking it and comments on how the stuff we make at home is so much better.  It really is.  But we enjoyed our date together.  We also spent a good amount of time reading that day.  Jared and Lydia have both been doing a great job with our reading "program".  Jared has earned 5 rewards and I think Lydia has done 3.  I have spent a fair amount of time looking up books at their reading levels and found this great series for Jared called the "I survived" series.  They take a famous event and a survivors experience and he loves them.  He is a big fan of Historic Fiction. Its been so lovely to see him start a book and not want to stop reading, to sit read it from start to finish.  I have had time to read more books this summer and its been so nice.  Hooray for reading all around.  We also did another science experiment which was kind of a dud and will not be repeated. Its been helpful to try these out for preschool next year too. Speaking of preschool, I had 2 more families sign up on Friday and another one email me about preschool!  That means I have a full class of 8 students and like a wait list!!! It's an amazing feeling.  What an answer to hours of prayer, stress and frustrations. I am thrilled to have a full class and am anxious to see what it will be like to A. not have Lydia in the class and B. have 8 students to teach, love, prepare for and manage. It will be great to see if I like that many or will aim for 6 next year.  I am so grateful.

Tuesday was spent in DC.  We were thinking of new things to do and even though it was pricey we decided to try out the paddle boats at the tidal basin.  I really wanted one of the swan boats that come with a motor but sadly they are only made for 2 people.  We did get a paddle boat with the canopy though which was quite helpful.  It was actually a beautiful day there.  Clouds with a nice breeze and only like 75 degrees!  Really unusual for August.  The paddle boats were fun but really tiring too. Fortunately for me, Jared was feeling a little extra competitive that day and wanted to be the one who paddled the most.  I was happy to give him extra padding time!  After an hour on the water we walked over to the World War II memorial. I had not been yet and its really nice.  I really like how they designed it.  We stopped for Cafe Rio on the way out of town and in the same parking lot there happened to be a goodwill.  I like to stop in them and see if I can find any great deals for preschool.  This was a pretty good one with some fun Melissa and Doug toys and new snow boots for Jared and Lydia. We toyed with the idea of stopping at the temple but Mark was in a hurry to get home as a friend had offered to take him to pick up our new sliding glass door for the basement!  The old one has been so hard to open.  It should be installed tomorrow so more about that then. We did take the time to stop at Moo-Thru and enjoy some delicious ice cream.

World War II Memorial. 

Wednesday was Mark's birthday and Lydia's first day of Kindergarten Camp.  Mark requested crepes for breakfast and opened presents first thing.  He also wanted to play Frisbee golf and go kayaking so we spent the day at Walnut Creek and had a nice time.  Mark always wants Tri Tip for his dinner so that is what he had. It kind of makes me laugh because if that is what he wants then he is cooking his own birthday dinner but if it makes him happy then so be it.  One gift was the book Planted, one we have both wanted to read for awhile.  I am excited for him to finish it so I can read it too.

Lydia was at camp from 9:00-11:00 and had a great time!  She has never been super excited about going to Kindergarten. It's not that she doesn't want to go or doesn't think she will like it, she just seems to think she would prefer preschool.  I am pretty sure the only negative thing I have ever said is that its long and really that is just the truth! But I think she will have a good year. She met with 2 different teachers, one on each day and ended up with her teacher from the first day, Ms. Hunter which I am thrilled about.  Everyone I talked to had only good things to say about her and I have been impressed with what I saw of her at school.  There are about 6 kids from primary who are all going to Baker Butler next year but it doesn't look like Lydia has class with any of them.  It's totally fine but it could have been fun to have one of them in her class.  It looks like most of the "mormon" kids ended up in separate classes.  There are 6 classes I believe and I do know 2 kids are together but not the others.  Hopefully she will feel comfortable and love Ms. Hunter.  I know I will be sad to have her gone all day but she is ready and will do great. Its a happy-sad. We found out Jared's teacher too.  He has Annie Martin, a new hire.  We found out that a friend from church is in his class and his good buddy from last year Marcus, who lives just down the street from us, is in his class. He hoped to have class with Tyler again but no luck. He is so happy to have Marcus though. Hard to believe the new school year is just a week away.

Mark really wanted to float down this section of the Shenandoah River so we made the hour and 25 minute drive over to Luray and made it happen. We drove to the end spot, dropped off his car and then drove back to the put in spot and got ready.  This stretch was 8 miles long so it would take roughly 3 hours.  We got our kayaks in and I had this strange feeling of almost anxiety.  Were we really committing to being in kayaks for 3 hours?  It's not like a pool or park where if we got tired of it we could just walk away, no we would be doing this for the next 3 hours.  I was concerned about Jared paddling that long too.  The river didn't really have rapids but it did have a decent current that helped.  It wasn't completely flat, it had parts where the current picked up they were sort of like ledges or "steps" and Jared and Lydia loved them. We got stuck more than once and scraped up the bottom of our kayaks but using them was way better then floating in a tube.  That would have taken even longer than 3 hours and our bums would be soar from rocks!  We knew we would scrape the kayaks up and had decided it was what they were made for, what would be the point of having kayaks that we didn't use for adventures?  After about 3 miles Mark attached Jared's kayak to his and towed him and Lydia.  This was a really good arrangement.  Lydia started out in Mark's kayak but then there was a bee so she was not wiling to stay in his and came into mine.  It was fine having her with me but way more fun when she rode on the back of Jared's.  On the map Mark looked up the night before it showed a good spot for swimming and Jared and Lydia took advantage of that. I'm glad they could swim some.  We had really nice weather with good cloud coverage and low humidity which helped a ton, it was a fun adventure. I'm not sure its an every summer kind of thing (Mark would say yes it was and I would be willing to do it every year) and we both agreed it would be even more fun with friends so we will try that next time. We finished the 8 miles at just over 3 hours. Mark drove his car to the put in spot about 10 minutes away, came back with the Highlander to load up the kayaks and then we drove back to the put in spot so he could drive his car home. It definitely takes some coordinating but it all worked out great. It was a pretty spot and a fun different thing to do.

You can see the "rapids" here.  Jared really did an excellent job. 

Beautiful. 

Saturday was a rough day here.  A horrible, hate filled rally was planned in downtown Charlottesville.  We live a good 20 minutes away from the area where it took place, which living here, seems far removed but when you look at it on TV it seems really close.  My Mom and one of my brothers texted to make sure we were okay. We had no intention of going anywhere near this rally and spent the morning quietly at home having a play date with a friend of Jared's from school and getting ready for the Bishopric BBQ Mark planned.  It makes me angry and sad that Charlottesville, (or anywhere really) this city I love so much is attracting people with so much hate who feel a need to proclaim how they feel. It was strange to see all these people on FB talking about the town I now live in.  I have been to that area, in fact we were there just a few months ago for an entirely different event.  It was the international culture festival a fun event celebrating diversity. And we have been to UVA more than once, those very grounds they held their disgusting march on.  I hope so much that similar events are not about to be held but find it hard to believe it will quietly go away. These events remind me of all the things I have been given and the responsibility I have to teach Jared and Lydia about these things.  The conversations we need to regularly have and the example I must set. To help them be aware. Its hard at their current ages, to know how to explain it, how much background to give, how many details to make them understand things that happen.  Once I try to explain one thing it just leads to more and more examples and stories.

So, Mark wanted to have a BBQ with the families serving in the Bishopric and planned it all out with those he's serves with.  I just needed to show up. But before that could happen another crazy event took place.  Jared, Lydia and I were in the front room reading when all of a sudden we heard a crash in our front yard. A car crashed into some trees at the top of our driveway!  Mark had been walking down the hall way and saw the car come across our driveway and crash.  We stood there for a moment and then rushed out to see if we could help.  The driver was a young girl right around 20 and said she blacked out which caused the crash. Mark called 911 and they arrived shortly after.  It was amazing that the girl could walk away from her car.  Her door got jammed by some trees so she ended up climbing out the sun roof.  I was thinking of worst case scenarios and wanted her away from the car as soon as possible in case it blew up or caught fire.  She seemed in pretty good shape, a cut on her arm and leg and sore ribs.  Our neighbors heard the noise and came up to help.  One is a nurse so it was nice to have her there.  A fire truck, ambulance and sheriff all showed up. The paramedics checked her out and she seemed fine.  This was at 4:00 and everyone was supposed to arrive at 5:00. It was scary and crazy!  She came over today to drop off a nice card thanking us for helping her and bought brownies. We allow Jared and Lydia to play at the top of the driveway but had a good talk with them about where they need to go if they hear a car coming.  Our mailman also came by shortly after and his first question was to see if Jared and Lydia were okay.  They love greeting him and he looks forward to seeing them, it was sweet of him.  We were just so relieved the driver wasn't hurt more!

The BBQ turned out well.  The tow truck was removing the car when people started arriving, an unexpected sight I am sure. We planned on eating outside on the deck but were concerned we would be rained out.  It rained for about 20 minutes but then stopped and we were able to enjoy our newly stained deck. It really is great outdoor space. I am glad we could eat out there as finding space where 20+ people could be together and covered would have been a challenge.  Mark grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and everyone brought delicious sides.  It was low key, loud and fun.  The kids enjoyed playing together and it was nice to have a chance to visit with some of these people.  The men talk regularly but I have rarely gotten to visit with any of their wives and was glad I could some. They are great families and we are so appreciative of their willingness to give of their time and their family time to help Mark and our ward.  I am sure we will have more gatherings together. I enjoy getting together with people but can't decide if Mark maybe likes it even more.