Back to School

Last Thursday was the first day of school here in Windsor.  Because of the way the schools are set-up here both of the kids are starting at new schools; Nalani in 2nd grade and Jaren is starting 6th grade at the middle school!  It seems like only yesterday he was starting school for the very first time and now here he is a middle schooler!

Can you believe how much he has grown!?!  Wow.  (I don't know why the 2005 caption on the 2nd kindergarten picture isn't showing up, it's there when I upload it!)

And here is Nalani and the both of them together for the first day of school!

Don't Worry, I'm Still Alive

I have been super busy lately - all kinds of "bloggable" things going on but no time to blog about them!  We had all kinds of summer activites to cram in before school starts and then we had to get ready for school and now we have to get used to the new school routine!  So I will be back, hopefully next week!

A New Back To School Do

I told Nalani that at the end of summer she could get her hair cut even with her bangs that she has been growing out.  Trevor kept saying he wouldn't let her.  This morning he said she could get it cut however she wanted.  We didn't wait for him to change his mind, we went right away to get it cut!

She was a few inches shy of being able to donate it to Lock for Love.  If we had it cut shorter it would have made it to the 10" they require but we thought we were already pushing it with Trevor, though a chin-length bob would have been really cute!

Tuesday Ten......on Wednesday

I don't know why I chose to have my main blog post of the week be on Tuesdays.  You see I only work a few days a week and one of them is Tuesday.  So I am a little busy already on Tuesdays.  I thought of changing it to the Friday Five, but then again Friday is the other day I work!  So instead I decided that it will just be a surprise when I post my Tuesday Ten. 

My dad is planning that this weeks Tuesday Ten will be the 10 reasons why you shouldn't go camping.  I hate to disappoint him, but it isn't.  There will be quite a few camping pictures though.  I decided that today will just be random blathering, which I know is no different than any other post!

1)  My kids school schedule seems to have much more influence on my life than I realize. Every Wednesday this summer I always think we are in a hurry to do something because it is a "short day".  The kids get out of school early on Wednesdays but that doesn't mean there are less hours in the day on Wednesday!  But yet this morning I thought I better get up early and get stuff done because it is a short day.  Nevermind that it is summer and better yet my kids aren't even home this week!

2) And since they aren't home this week that means:

No one will be sitting here all day doing nothing (I usually sit on the other end of the couch)

This will not be tuned to the Disney Channel all day.  In fact it probably won't even get turned on.

And I will not get any of these this week.

Yes, they are gray hairs, not the best picture because there are a lot of them, and you can't see it too well in this shot.

3) We did manage to do a few things on our list of things we still want to do this summer.  We went camping last week.

We have been going to Hendy Woods State Park near Boonville for the last 7 or 8 years.  The park is now on the list to close next summer.  This makes me sad.  It is a great campground and we will miss it if we can't go every summer.

We went hiking:

We made Jiffy Pop on the camp stove:

We went swimming in the Navarro River:

We roasted hot dogs over the fire (yummmm...that smoky flavor):

We made smores.  We also had GIANT marshmallows, they were way more marshmallow than we could handle:

We even attempted to cut off our finger!  Well Trevor did.  And no he didn't cut his thumb off, he just has it bent funny, but he did put a major gash in his finger.  He was attempting to modify a bubble wand of all things.  He thought I should take a picture of his bandaged finger and a bloody leaf.  There were a lot of bloody leaves.

We played games. Or rather they played games.  I don't do games.

4) The kids are at my parents house this week which was one of the things they wanted to do this summer.  I took them up and got to visit my Grandma Dodo for a little bit which is something I wanted to do this summer.  She is 90 and she doesn't like pictures and she sure as hell isn't going to smile for one!



  5) This past Saturday was Trevor's birthday.  One more year to the BIG 4-0!

 And that about wraps this up.  Plus I am going to be late for my pedicure......

Tuesday Ten....kind of

I don't think there will be 10 here and I don't really think they are funny one bit but it is all I've got for you today!

There are 22 days until school starts.  I have mixed emotions about the kids going back to school. 

1) I am not ready for the morning wake-up fights and the getting homework done fights

2) I will be glad for the being together just about 24/7 fights to end.

3) There are still a lot of things that we wanted to do this summer that we haven't done yet.  Hell, we haven't even made our "What We Want To Do This Summer" list!
            1) Spend a few days at my aunts and swim and hang out - not happening
            2) Go to the Jelly Belly Factory - may still happen
            3) The kids are supposed to spend a week at my parents - still hoping for that one!
            4) I also wanted to spend a few days at my parents and my grandma's house, she's 90 you know and I should probably spend some time with her - I may get a day or two in there when I drop-off/pick-up the kids, if they go
            5) Go the beach - maybe with my mom
            6) Hiking at Armstrong Woods - may still happen
            7) Camping - might actually happen this week!
            8) I planned to do the eliptical machine at least 5 days a week - I think I got on it twice. 
            9) I was going to have my 2010 Project 365 completely journaled - haven't written a thing.
            10) Not let the kids watch TV.......ummmm yeah, right.
So we may still do some of these things in the next 22 days but that will make it a very busy 22 days AND soccer practice will start somewhere in there too.

4) Looking forward to a little time to myself when the kids go to school, but then of course I will start volunteering in the class, planning parties and finding a million things to do for other people.

5) I really don't want to spend money that I don't have on school clothes that they don't really need.  I asked Jaren if we was going to spend the money he made at the yard sale on school clothes.  He told me that he doesn't really need any if he has to pay for it!  But of course if I am paying for it he will find plenty that he "needs"!

I think I have about tapped out this subject and like I said there is no humor in it!  But for now August 18th with have a big red circle on our calendar and I will let you know if it is a good or bad thing!

My New Glasses

Finally got my new glasses adjusted so they don't hurt.  Here they are - keep in mind that my photographer is 7 years old!

I know I owe you all a list of 10 entertaining things but I have been busy and haven't taken the time to think of them yet.  Here's one though: I told the kids they can't watch TV today........we will see how that goes!

Exhausted

The garage sale is over!  So much work to get rid of useless crap!  I am so glad that my friends Karen and Berta joined in the sale and were there to help me out.  I had tons of stuff from my mom's store to sell I couldn't have done it alone.  Thanks girls!  My darn kids made more at the sale than I did!  I let them have the money from their toys, books, TVs - whatever they decided to part with.  They made about $130 each!  I brought in a little over $230 - that should get me real pretty toes and eyebrows!  I purged and organized my scrapbook stuff so I am looking forward to doing a little crafting in my neat and clean room. But for the rest of today I plan to sit on the couch.  I am exhausted!