15 years of Adventures

A few days before our 15th wedding anniversary Mark and I drove over to Roanoke to try out their new zip line/adventure park.  We talked about going on a trip but it was too close to the start of school.  I wanted to do something fun and different, 15 years is kind of a big deal.  So I started looking for cool things to do nearby and saw that this place had just opened up.  It was reasonably priced and only 2 hours away which worked our perfectly. We had a great time.   The Shaw's kindly offered to watch Jared and Lydia for the day and they had a great day too. 

After getting outfitted with your gear you attend a short training school which shows you how to use the equipment and goes over some basic guidelines.  You practice on a short, down low zip line which was really helpful.  Then you have 2.5 hours to have fun.  There are 4 courses total and we stayed on 2 of them.  The two we did had more zip lines, one was completely zip lines which was what we wanted.  The other 2 were designed with younger kids in mind and there were lots of climbing obstacles.  We were lucky and rarely had to wait in lines.  On our 2nd time through we tried to be clever and think of creative things to yell as we did the zip lines.  I tired to tie in most things I yelled to Mark and our anniversary with some success. 

It was something we had never done before and would definitely do again.  It was hot and humid but most of the course was shaded which helped a lot and really what else would it be in Virginia in mid August? As we did the courses we both mentioned how Jared would really love it.  We think we might take him and a friend for his birthday. I don't think he would have any problems.  Lydia might have a hard time maneuvering the belays but I think she would really enjoy doing the courses.  After our time was up we stopped for lunch and then ice cream and drove home to pick up Lydia and Jared.  It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary, my favorite so far. 

Being married to Mark is a dream.  He is helpful, hardworking, forgiving, great at planning trips and getting us around on said trips, an awesome dad, always willing to share his treats with me (and comes up with really good treats), faithful and much more.  He loves the church and is willing to serve any where he can and always encourages me to pursue things I am interested in.  And more often then not he says "yes" when I find activities for us to do as a family when maybe he would enjoy a nap instead. Yes, we both get exasperated with each other, we are not perfect but we are both committed and patient with each other.  I am both incredibly happy and grateful we both said yes 15 years ago and look forward to many more adventures with him.

Back To School

Sunday night we made our way over to Baker-Butler for our annual photo shoot.  It was so gross outside so we tried to be as quick as possible.  Normally I do it in the morning but since I am at work by 8:00 that was not going to happen this year.  So as a bonus Mark came along and had his pictures taken too. The next day we went back to Baker-Butler for Open House.  We dropped off their school supplies and met their teachers.  It was a long day for Mark as he also had his Open House that night from 5:30 - 7:00 and then worked at the airport. He's a trooper.

11th year teaching, 5th year at Burley Middle School.  Teaching 7th and 8th grade Social Studies.  7th grade: second half of US History.  8th civics.  This is not his school but both schools have a bear as their mascot and brick buildings so it works.

He was being silly and wanted to do Mug shots for the next two but there is some real truth behind this feeling.  Teaching is draining and frustrating at times and you have to make sure you don't let it get you down and keep you from being an effective teacher.

He gave his first day a 7.5 / 10.  Not bad.  He said his 1st block is really quiet.  His 2nd block is really talkative but not in a really bad way necessarily just a big contrast from his previous class.  He said his last block has quite a few characters and they will prove to be the most challenging group.  I hope it's a really good year for him.  Interestingly he told me that Albemarle County does offer teachers a one year sabbatical.  They can take a year off and their school will hold their position for them. We were very intrigued by this and would be interested in looking into it in the next 2 years or so. 

Lydia gave her first day of 2nd grade a 10 / 10.  She walked up to me and said that she thought 2nd grade was going be a great year.  She did not end up with the teacher I wanted her to have but seems to really like her teacher Ms. Borman.  Last year was Ms. Borman's first year teaching and different people have told me it was a really awful class.  Some were surprised she was even willing to come back to the school.  I so hope they did a better job grouping kids this year.  Lydia thinks she is great and even got some kids she really wanted in her class which is good for her.  I hope she feels challenged and happy at school. 

Lydia August 2019:  some of her current favorites are: reading, Barbies, and horses.  She read so many books this Summer.  It was great.  She read the first 3 Harry Potter books and more horse diaries, puppy pals and rainbow fairy books than I can count.  She loves sweets so much and wants to eat them all the time.  She is not terribly picky, but can be a stinker about eating her food.  She also loves screens and wishes we let her use them way more.  She still refuses to go in our basement by herself.  She can and does play nicely by herself, but she likes to be in the same room as someone.  She is taking piano lessons and rarely complains about practicing.  When she practices she is often singing along with the little words.  She really enjoyed swim team up until the last 2 weeks.  Then she started making up her own strokes and being more of a mermaid.  She mastered diving off the starting block and loves being in the water.  She decided she wanted to play JAG soccer this Fall so we will see how long it holds her attention.  She is trying to read her scriptures each night and loves to do it with Mark.  She and I are close and doing well, but she is super attached to Mark right now. The two nights he worked at the airport this week she missed him so much she cried herself to sleep.  It was so sad.  She and Jared are doing well and enjoy being together.  They have a variety of games they play:  Harry Potter, Doggie and owner (she is the owner), Legos, Jared will even play Barbies with her.  Overall they have a lot of fun together, but she definitely gets frustrated when they will be playing nicely and then she will do something different than what Jared wants and he just stops playing and shuts her out.  He will just get up and go to his room and close the door.  They definitely bicker, but Lydia is like the best sister one could have.  She goes along with his ideas and what he wants and doesn't often put up a fight so when she does have a different idea and he won't go for it she gets shut out which is really not fair. This she does not like.  She seems to either make an instant connection with someone or take a really long time to become friends with them. She is thoughtful and compassionate and great fun to be around. 

Jared gave his first day of 4th grade a 7.75 / 10.  He is so happy that he has his two best buddies in his class, Tyler and Marcus.  He and Marcus have been together since 1st grade and he and Tyler have been separated since Kindergarten.  His 3rd grade teachers (Shafran and Jeong) planned a class reunion the week before school started, they are the very best.  They met at Sweet Frog and hung out.  Mark and Jared went and while they were talking Mrs. Shafran mentioned that when she looked over the class lists (she is the new gifted teacher) she saw that Tyler was in a different class and moved him into Jared's class.  She and Mrs. Jeong tired hard to get Jared to branch out and befriend other kids besides Marcus but Jared was just not interested.  I think the 3 of them will have a great year together.  One of Tyler's good friends from last year is in there too so I hope the 4 of them can get along well together.  His teacher is Ms. Symoniak.  She has been teaching for a few years but this is also her 2nd year at Baker-Butler.  I think Jared will do fine with her. He gave the next 2 days 9 / 10 so things are going well for him. 

Jared, August 2019:  I asked him what his favorites are and he said: Orcas, school, and his parents.  He is in a pretty good place right now.  He loves reading, (I have lost count of how many times he has read the first 6 Harry Potter books, it's a lot.) soldiers (and ninjas lately,) Legos, and being with Marcus or Tyler.  He is lucky to have two really great best friends.  I can't exactly put my finger on why he works so well with those two.  With Marcus I think it helps that he is similar to Lydia and is happy to just go along with the flow for the most part.  He has a little more push back from Tyler, but really they are just nice kids who really like Jared and he is very loyal to them.  Sometimes we get together with other people and I'll see Jared reading a book and I am like, Dude, where is your social awareness?  Go interact with our guests.  I am happy he loves to read, but he can be pretty single minded at times.  He is very independent which I appreciate, but I also want him to know how to interact with different people.  He was happy to do swim team and is looking forward to JAG soccer this Fall.  I do think Jared is a good sweet kid who is mostly very easy to be around.  And I think he is this way 92% of the time.  He is a good listener and smart.  He has some really great ideas and good understanding when we do Come Follow me.  I have been surprised more than once at his comprehension. He enjoys learning about the world and History and has really enjoyed the traveling we have been able to do. 

That being said he can be completely focused on himself and lack empathy for others more than I am comfortable with.  When he gets in this type of mood he becomes so sarcastic that I don't even want to talk to him.  It's like any little thing we ask of him he makes it seem like the biggest inconvenience and he will not back down, he has to have the last word.  It's unpleasant to say the least.  I am not quite sure how to describe it, but he also has a deep sense of things needing to be fair.  For example at a birthday party recently there was a piñata.  It was a family party for a girl turning 6.  The older kids were calling out who got to go first.  I commented that the birthday girl would be going first so these two adjusted and said they would be 2nd and 3rd. I said well, they are probably going to let the younger kids go first and he got mad about this saying it was not fair and looking mad.  This is not a new concept it is pretty standard at every party we have ever attended, but he acted like it was so unfair.  Now, that being said, 2 years ago there would have been tears and lots of reasons why this was not right and in this instance he just got irritated and then accepted it so there is some progress, at least at handling his emotions better.  I am not really sure what word to use to describe it with:  Selfish/Self absorbed fit but seem a little strong?  Is the right description to say a deep sense of things needing to be fair?  He called it so he should get to go sooner, its the other kids fault they weren't as quick as him? I don't know. 

So a majority of the time Jared is a perfectly independent easy kid to be around. He is a different kid when he is having an off day. When he gets upset he goes to his room and shuts his door (which is exactly what I did growing up so not a big surprise to me).  He does not like to talk about things when he is upset (neither do I) so confrontation is very hard for him and he hates to admit that he was wrong.  When he knows we are really disappointed with him he can't even talk to us about it without tearing up.  I hope as he gets older he will be able to work through things when he really needs to with people, because there are going to be confrontations. He will need to be able to communicate.  I also hope that he is not too hard on himself, that he works so hard to be good and do well all the time that eventually he just needs to release it.  As I am reading this I'm also thinking, well I certainly have off or bad days too which is important for me to remember.  To keep things in perspective. 

After I picked them up from school we headed to McDonalds with some girls from Lydia's class last year and Tyler. These are nice girls but none of them are in Lydia's class this year so we will see if she pursues these friendships.  I like to go and do this with them so I can hear about their days before they are distracted at home so it was weird this year to be there with other people.  But it was such a relief to hear that they both are happy and excited to be at school. 

End of Summer: Campout day and a hike

To finish off our Summer Fun list we had a campout day.  We set up our tent in the basement, made s'mores on the grill and watched a Cake Boss episode where they made a huge campground themed cake.  This was our first time setting up this tent.  It seems really nice and we hope to get out and camp this Fall.  I really want to try to go with other families as it makes camping way more fun.  Jared was laying in the tent as we watched the Cake Boss episode.  He said he was not interested in watching it but every time I looked over at him he was watching it.  Lydia planned to sleep in the tent with Jared but quickly realized it was not comfortable and moved upstairs within minutes of us putting them to bed.  Jared stayed there all night but did not get a good nights sleep.  We kept the tent up for most of the next day and read some scary stories I looked up online in there.  I wanted to be sure to do it after they had attempted to sleep there and when we were about to take down the tent.  It was actually quite fun, a different activity for us to do together.  Campout day was a success!  We will see if it gets put on the list again next year. 

Today we went on a hike. Hiking was also on our Summer list.  Mark took them once but I had not gone so its nice we could all go together.  This was not related to campout day but fits in well here.  The week started out miserably hot and humid and ended with a tease of Fall.  I know September will be hot and yucky but yesterday and today have been amazing. The 5 day forecast is really pretty decent too.  There were quite a few big thunderstorms this week, we momentarily lost power two different days one was just minutes and the other was about 30 minutes.  We know people who had no power all day which would have been awful given it was 95 degrees outside and so very humid.  But today was amazing. I got up and went on a great walk early on and then we drove over to Humpback Rocks for a hike.  It's not a very long hike (.8 mile both ways) but its an incline the whole way up so you feel it.  You have to climb on rocks, like its more rocks then dirt for the path at times which was tricky coming down because they were slick but we made it. Lydia had a hard time going up and loved going down.  The views were great and it was so nice to be outside and not feel disgusting. 

Half way?

Tomorrow, August 20th marks the 2.5 year mark for Bishop Spencer. We obviously do not know exactly when he will be released and are feeling fine with how things are but if they were to follow the standard 5 year timeline then he would be halfway done!  Things are going pretty well for him.  We just got a good group of new families in our ward which has been awesome.  It put him in a position to have surplus people who are able and wiling to hold callings which is exciting and bumped up our primary numbers for sure.  We were holding pretty steady at 6 - 8 kids in nursery and now have 12.  The first week in  October will mark 2 years for me in nursery which is a pretty good amount of time.  The sister I have been serving with reached 2 years in July.  We both have been happy to be in there.  They are in the process of moving and it will be sad to see them go.  Nursery feels like a good, simple, safe calling for me to have while Mark is serving as Bishop.  It won't last forever but is has been a really good fit. A majority of the new people who moved in plan to stick around long term which will be really nice. I was talking to a friend earlier this Summer and she brought up next year as an election year and asked Mark if it was possible for our ward to have a no politics at church kind of rule.  We have some pretty extreme/diverse viewpoints in our ward and there have been some definite losing of the spirit moments which are hard to navigate.  Especially for Mark.  It will not be fun and will probably be a long election season.  2020 might be his hardest year as Bishop.  It would be lovely if this could happen.  People can and should talk all they want about how they feel about elections with people who want to do that but it does not need to happen at our church building and especially not at the pulpit.  But how would one tactfully bring that up and would the people who struggle with it even get it?  I don't know. I don't envy Mark that conversation.  Maybe I should just stay in nursery until 2021.

But, to celebrate the halfway point we had cake!  We invited the Strubles (1st counselor) and Kwon's (2nd counselor) over and had a lovely time visiting with them.  We so appreciate their faith and willingness to serve.  Lydia and Jared had fun with the Kwon's kids. I need to work harder to get Lydia together with Jane.  They really have fun together.  Jane turns 8 in September so they are only 3 calendar months apart but she is in the class above Lydia's. There are so many people in the ward who help in so many ways we are very lucky.  I made a new carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting) recipe and was really happy with how it turned out.  We hadn't had carrot cake in a really long time and it was delicious.  We joked about saving the other half of the cake and eating it when he is released but it was too good so we ate it all.

Mike Struble, Mark Spencer, Young Kwon 

Summer fun #3

We've been checking activities off our Summer Fun list.  School starts next Wednesday and we have 4 items left. One, pick raspberries is not going to happen as the season is over.  It peaked while we were in Iceland so we definitely missed that one.  Two items we have done but not very well.  They are "new kayak spots," we only tried out one way back over Memorial Day and the other is "science experiments."  We have done one experiment, the always requested "Elephant's Toothpaste" but I think we should do at least 2 more to really "count" it. 

Sunday we checked off Milkshake Day.  This was a Lydia original.  I'm not sure what she had in mind when she suggested this but we went with it. We ended up picking 5 recipes to try and invited one of the new families in our ward to come try them with us.  This was a good move as it limited the amount of each milkshake we all had.  It would have been a bit much if it was just the 4 of us.  I am certain this will become an annual Summer tradition and I am good with that.  It was really nice to visit with this new family. They have kids ranging from 14 - 9 months and I was glad to see we could have a good time even with such a broad age range.  Their kids seemed perfectly happy to hang with us.  Sometimes I don't reach out to people because they have older kids who I think would be bored but I should be more open. I am trying very hard to be inviting and social.  I pretty much took off all last year and want to come out of that funk.  We tried 3 milkshakes back to back then took a break and got to know each other and then tried the next two. It was a great activity.

Here were the results:

  

Mark did a great job blending our shakes. This day was right up his ally. 
Pictured:  Raspberry with cream and lemon zest.

This was the Little Debbie Milkshake which was not my favorite (I picked Mint) but was the winner. 

And poor peach which was lacking in flavor:

Saturday we went up to Staunton to go swimming.  It was a beautiful day.  We stopped for lunch at Wrights Diner which honestly does not have very good food but it is old timey and you can order your food from your table on the phone so its just fun.  And the milkshakes are very good.  We had fun swimming and playing in the water.  After awhile it got cloudy and poor Jared was so cold his lips were blue.  He didn't swim much after that.  I'm starting to get a little concerned about his weight. He has always been lightweight but he seems to be getting even thinner.  His well check is in October but I may need to take him in sooner. After swimming we changed and since it was so nice out, mostly cloudy, nice breeze and like 80 degrees with low humidity we stopped to play at the park near the pool.  Its a nice park and we hadn't been to one in awhile so it was fun.  At least for Jared and Lydia it was.  I was actually feeling pretty crappy by this point.  On one of my last times going down the slide I hit my head super hard.  I felt like I was going to see stars.  By the time we got to the park I had a horrible headache so I laid down in the grass (even though I hate grass here, I always think a tick or other bug will get me) while Lydia and Jared played. We stopped by Aldi on the way home which Mark always enjoys.  It was a nice day in Staunton.

Friday was Mark's birthday.  We invited 2 families over to have ice cream cake with us. Mark picked his favorite meal for dinner: tri tip, twice baked potatoes, baked beans and grilled vegetables and proceeded to cook most of it himself. I cut the veggies and made the potatoes but yeah, he always picks a meal I don't cook.  It was nice to meet another one of the new families. They are just here for the next school year but have kids who are in the same grades as Lydia and Jared so I think it was good for them to hang out. We are so lucky to have Mark in our lives.  He is great.  

Last night we met up with friends at Carter Mountain for the Sunset Series.  The Sunset Series got so popular that they now offer it Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  This was great news for us because Thursdays are always tricky for us with Mark needing to be at the church.  The family we went with also has church commitments Thursday so it was a win for both of us.  We took a picnic dinner and enjoyed visiting and a lovely Sunset.  We live in such a pretty place.  The sun was still out a lot when we first arrived so after melting for awhile we moved to the back of the area where it was nice and shaded and could enjoy ourselves much more.  Shortly after that the clouds came out and cooled it down really nicely.  It turned into a lovely evening to be out.  The forecast originally called for thunderstorms so I was nervous but they did not show up.  I was happy we could make it happen before school started for us and all the UVA students came back.  

I truly love my new phone.  And these kids.  And Charlottesville. 

I love the "Apple Barn/Country Store".  It's so old fashioned Americana to me.  It has been really built up since we first starting going to Carter Mountain.  

We also spent a morning at Carter Mountain picking peaches which made Mark so happy.  He went three times this Summer.  Once with just Jared and Lydia but the peaches were not quite ready.  When we went as  family they were perfect.  We ended up with 18 pounds.  Mark would have preferred much more.  We all guessed how much we thought we picked.  Lydia guessed 16, I think Mark was 15, Jared was 17 and I guessed 18, spot on.  We went on a Saturday and he took Lydia and Jared back the following Monday with the Shedd's.   They attended the curiosity kids events where you make a craft, read a story, pick peaches and get ice cream all for 10 dollars.   It's a pretty sweet deal.  

Wednesday we found out Jared and Lydia's teachers for next year.  Lydia has Ms. Borman a second year teacher and Jared has Ms. Symoniak.  He really lucked out and has Marcus and Tyler in his class this year.  He will love that.  I am happy for him. I talked to a couple of Mom's of Lydia's friends from 1t grade and none of them have Ms. Borman.  I put down three kids names that Lydia asked me to so I hope one will be in there.  Poor girl just can't get a break.  I really hoped she would get Dash in her class but no luck.  I think they would just really enjoy being in a class together but it is not to be. I had not actually heard anything about these teachers so I emailed two people I know who would know them and heard positive things about them. One told me, 

"This is exciting!  One thing is for certain, Steve Saunders always did a great job in hiring. Symoniak is new to the division last year, but not new to teaching. I worked with her a couple of times, she’s enthusiastic and happy to be a teacher. She uses sound practices. Borman will be a second year teacher this year, and is supported by a strong second grade team. She is kind and gentle, very sweet. Lydia will love her. They will both have a great year! "

It was very encouraging.  The other friend told me that Lydia's teacher had a really awful class last year.  All the teachers talked about how bad it was.  I hope she gets a really nice class this year.  Not only for her but for Lydia too.  I told Lydia that she has to be even nicer than she usually is to help this teacher love teaching and if the other kids are being bad to call them out on it!  I don't feel like I have to worry about either of them and hope they have a great year.  

About 2 weeks ago we went over to Baker-Butler one night to meet the new principal.  The PTO hosted a Popsicle Party Meet and Greet. Mark and I (and pretty much everyone I talked to) really liked Dr. Saunders so we were sad to see him go.  This new guy is Seth Kinnard and he seems friendly and happy to be here.  We will see how Baker-Butler does with him.  He had been working in a really good school in Alexandria VA, up in Northern VA but they were happy to come to Charlottesville.  He and his wife have kids the same age as Jared and Lydia which is funny because Dr. Saunders did too or close to. But they live over on the other side of town for now. 

We spent some time at Chris Greene with friends.  It has been nice to be back at Chris Greene this year.  It was so hit and miss the last 2 years with the algae bloom that I never wanted to go but this year it has been in the clear.  We also had 2 beautiful mornings over the past weekend.  I woke up Saturday and Sunday to like no humidity and 61 degree weather so I drove over to Chris Greene and went on a brisk walk.  It was peaceful and refreshing and made me so happy.

Saturday morning:

Sunday morning I caught the Hot Air Balloons taking off.   

We had such a lovely Summer.  Even though work was slow and boring it gave structure to my days and filled the time for me.  I am really looking forward to work picking up again.  Jared and Lydia had a great time with Mark.  This week was sort of different for us as we had to figure out what we were going to do with Jared and Lydia because I needed to be at work and Mark had to go back to school for all the meetings.  We had 2 friends who kindly agreed to watch them 2 days and then they went to Mark's school with him the other 3 days when he did not have to be elsewhere for trainings.  It was so nice and helpful of these friends.  I was able to get to Mark's school by 12:30 so they were only there half a day.  They had fun in his classroom and running wandering around the halls of Burley Middle School.  They know their way around that school way better than I ever will.  It's really confusing!  There are so many doors and it's like 3 levels.  I am so glad they could go with Mark these days.  It worked out perfectly.  They were happy to be there and happy to be withfreinds too. Now I just have to make it through the rest of the hot humid weather and then it will be Fall!