The first day of school went really well. The biggest bummer for Annie was that her bus is a mess and she walked in the house about 3 min. before the boys and couldn't talk my ear off before the boys walked in. Last year her bus got her home 30 min. before the boys so she talked and talked before the boys got home. She loved seminary and came home much happier than she left. She played the piano in seminary because everyone else was too chicken. She isn't the best piano player in the class but I'm very proud of her for stepping up and doing her best. I probably would have been chicken. She was actually excited to go back the next day, but don't tell, she didn't want anyone to know that. :) She likes most of her classes and seeing all of her friends. She said the 7th graders are really little. Wow isn't she still in 7th grade? Whoops - time flies!
The boys had a great day! They wouldn't stop talking about it! Especially Tyler! I think he likes his teacher just a bit. OK a ton! He said his nickname is Sasquatch aka big foot. He has the biggest feet in his class. Shocker! Not! He has always had big feet. In fact he has 2 different sized feet. I can wear his shoes!
Jack loves his teacher and school. He was annoyed at the kids in his class for talking while he's reading. Oh brother Jack! Those who know Jack know he's usually the disruptor.
Matthew also had a great day and is keeping up on his homework after 2 days. So far so good. :) He really likes changing teachers for each subject and all the fun things they have planned for this year. He even has a planner. I thought this was interesting/funny: the 6th grade teachers told the kids they are required to shower and wear deodorant every day. None of the 6th grade classrooms have windows. I heard from a friend of mine that it smelled awful in there 2 years ago when her son was in 6th grade. Poor teachers!
Bubba and Jessie survived being home alone with me. I survived them. We actually had fun, just the 3 of us. In other news we finally have re-painted our front door. It was white and peeling! Now it's red and pretty. The previous owners or builder had painted it with flat latex paint and it was peeling off and looked horrible. One more project done on this house - hundreds more to go!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
First Day of School
The 4 oldest kids started school today. The house is really quiet now with just Jessie and Bubba here. We don't have a pictu
re of Annie, she left too early for us to be wide awake and remember to take a picture. She looked cute as always. The boys were up and ready to go early. Especially Jack, he's the most excited of all the kids this year. Jack's in 2nd grade, Ty's in 4th grade, and Matthew is in 6th. They seem to have great teachers so it should be a great year. Cross your fingers! I am!
Annie is in 9th grade. First year of high school. She was the least excited of all of the kids. She texted me to tell me she left her lunch on the bus. I hope the rest of the day went better. The thing she actually was excited about is starting seminary today. I'm sure she'll have a great year.
The house actually feels lonely today. I had to get the little ones dressed and breakfast today. Usually that's what the older kids do. I even changed 2 stinky diapers. (Thanks Cameron!) Maybe I do miss them. They have been a great help with the younger 2 this summer. But there has been no fighting or nagging today. Ahhhh heavenly for the next 45 min. Then all craziness breaks loose. I can't wait to see how their days were, and sign all the papers they bring home today. If they stopped with all the papers we have to sign and all the stupid homework, they could save an entire forest just from my 4 kids. There's an environmental issue they should tackle.
Football games start next week. We still don't know any details. Matthew is on the Bears and is a lineman. He does the hitting and protecting. Ty is playing QB on his flag football team. He has the ego for it! I mean confidence. :) Jack is starting butterfly chasing, whoops I mean soccer soon as well. Annie should be starting the tennis team in the next month just so I can run around a little more. It's a good thing I have the days to rest up for the all the practices and games coming up. I am really proud of them for all they do and excited to watch them. They are growing up fast but not too fast. :)
Speaking of growing up - today at lunch Cameron kept saying a word I didn't know. Then I realized he was folding his arms and saying "prayers". We aren't very good at praying for lunch but Cameron sure wants to change that. whoops! So I'm helping him pray and I say "bless the food". He looks up at me and says "bless Jessie's food too" while pointing insistently to her food. He never forgets Jessie. He adores her. Maybe he's here to watch out for her or maybe teach me what I'm forgetting. Probably both and a whole lot more. We love you Bubba! We love all of our kids and are very proud of them!
re of Annie, she left too early for us to be wide awake and remember to take a picture. She looked cute as always. The boys were up and ready to go early. Especially Jack, he's the most excited of all the kids this year. Jack's in 2nd grade, Ty's in 4th grade, and Matthew is in 6th. They seem to have great teachers so it should be a great year. Cross your fingers! I am! Annie is in 9th grade. First year of high school. She was the least excited of all of the kids. She texted me to tell me she left her lunch on the bus. I hope the rest of the day went better. The thing she actually was excited about is starting seminary today. I'm sure she'll have a great year.
The house actually feels lonely today. I had to get the little ones dressed and breakfast today. Usually that's what the older kids do. I even changed 2 stinky diapers. (Thanks Cameron!) Maybe I do miss them. They have been a great help with the younger 2 this summer. But there has been no fighting or nagging today. Ahhhh heavenly for the next 45 min. Then all craziness breaks loose. I can't wait to see how their days were, and sign all the papers they bring home today. If they stopped with all the papers we have to sign and all the stupid homework, they could save an entire forest just from my 4 kids. There's an environmental issue they should tackle.
Football games start next week. We still don't know any details. Matthew is on the Bears and is a lineman. He does the hitting and protecting. Ty is playing QB on his flag football team. He has the ego for it! I mean confidence. :) Jack is starting butterfly chasing, whoops I mean soccer soon as well. Annie should be starting the tennis team in the next month just so I can run around a little more. It's a good thing I have the days to rest up for the all the practices and games coming up. I am really proud of them for all they do and excited to watch them. They are growing up fast but not too fast. :)
Speaking of growing up - today at lunch Cameron kept saying a word I didn't know. Then I realized he was folding his arms and saying "prayers". We aren't very good at praying for lunch but Cameron sure wants to change that. whoops! So I'm helping him pray and I say "bless the food". He looks up at me and says "bless Jessie's food too" while pointing insistently to her food. He never forgets Jessie. He adores her. Maybe he's here to watch out for her or maybe teach me what I'm forgetting. Probably both and a whole lot more. We love you Bubba! We love all of our kids and are very proud of them!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
It has begun!
I'm just sitting here with Cameron on the couch. He's covered in italian dressing from dinner. I waited a minute too long to get him out of his chair and he dumped all of his pasta salad on his head. Ash is at footall practice with Tyler and Matthew. Tonight is the first crazy night of the season: 2 pactices at 6pm and 2 scouts at 7pm. Annie is at YW. They started at 6pm tonight too. At least the craziness was all scheduled for 6pm tonight. Jack and Jessie are out playing in the circle, at least that's where they should be. They can't get enough of playing with friends. So it's just me and Cameron. I think I'll wait to bathe Cam until Jessie is here too and maybe Ash so he can just bathe both of them.
One week until school starts! But who's counting. I have mixed feelings this year. I am excited for the routine and being alone with the little ones from 8am until 3pm. Some quiet time for me! Well sort of. Jessie won't take a nap anymore. But when you go from 6 to 2 kids it's bound to be a little calmer. When I clean it will stay clean for at least an hour instead of 10 min. I won't have to nag the kids all day just some of it. I can watch "Blues Clues" all day and "Curious and George" (it's "Curious George" but Jessie has added the and). I love to see what the kids are learning in school. The parts I'm not so excited about are: homework, no babysitters all day long, early mornings.
Homework rant: I understand Annie has homework and Matthew in 6th grade of course. But the amount in the lower grades is crazy! Some teachers we've had in the lower grades act like they'll fail if they don't turn in homework. Really in 2nd grade they shouldn't spend every second on homework and it shouldn't be the most important part of their education. I have 4 kids with homework every night and reading charts to do and extra projects. I feel like I'm homeschooling sometimes. Isn't that why I sent them to public school so I don't have to do so much work teaching them. Some teachers are great and keep homework in perspective. We had 2 last year of those teachers. The third made Matthew feel like a complete loser all year for forgetting his homework. He was a 5th grader. I'm sure no other 5th grade boy has forgotten his homework in the history of the world. What kills me is that they are so hung up on homework they aren't teaching them anything worthwhile. The teachers we've had who are homework nazis have taught my kids the least and had the boys hating school. Oh and leave me feeling like the worst mom ever! I had one teacher call and tell me Tyler, who gets 100% on every assignment and test (no exaggeration), was "way behind in school" because he hadn't turned in home work the past 2 weeks. (the homework he had was a packet turned in once a week) I wanted to keep him home on testing days so her scores would go down. If he's so far behind then she wouldn't want him on her testing right. He was in 2nd grade! Sorry to rant and rave it's a sore spot with me, obviously.
Overall I'm happy for school to start. I tried to hand pick the boys' teachers, so we will see what we get. Just one more week of long days of whining and nagging all day. Then we get it just when they're home from school. Whatever happened to kids just playing when they get home from school. And mom's giving 2 year olds baths. I'm such a slacker! :)
One week until school starts! But who's counting. I have mixed feelings this year. I am excited for the routine and being alone with the little ones from 8am until 3pm. Some quiet time for me! Well sort of. Jessie won't take a nap anymore. But when you go from 6 to 2 kids it's bound to be a little calmer. When I clean it will stay clean for at least an hour instead of 10 min. I won't have to nag the kids all day just some of it. I can watch "Blues Clues" all day and "Curious and George" (it's "Curious George" but Jessie has added the and). I love to see what the kids are learning in school. The parts I'm not so excited about are: homework, no babysitters all day long, early mornings.
Homework rant: I understand Annie has homework and Matthew in 6th grade of course. But the amount in the lower grades is crazy! Some teachers we've had in the lower grades act like they'll fail if they don't turn in homework. Really in 2nd grade they shouldn't spend every second on homework and it shouldn't be the most important part of their education. I have 4 kids with homework every night and reading charts to do and extra projects. I feel like I'm homeschooling sometimes. Isn't that why I sent them to public school so I don't have to do so much work teaching them. Some teachers are great and keep homework in perspective. We had 2 last year of those teachers. The third made Matthew feel like a complete loser all year for forgetting his homework. He was a 5th grader. I'm sure no other 5th grade boy has forgotten his homework in the history of the world. What kills me is that they are so hung up on homework they aren't teaching them anything worthwhile. The teachers we've had who are homework nazis have taught my kids the least and had the boys hating school. Oh and leave me feeling like the worst mom ever! I had one teacher call and tell me Tyler, who gets 100% on every assignment and test (no exaggeration), was "way behind in school" because he hadn't turned in home work the past 2 weeks. (the homework he had was a packet turned in once a week) I wanted to keep him home on testing days so her scores would go down. If he's so far behind then she wouldn't want him on her testing right. He was in 2nd grade! Sorry to rant and rave it's a sore spot with me, obviously.
Overall I'm happy for school to start. I tried to hand pick the boys' teachers, so we will see what we get. Just one more week of long days of whining and nagging all day. Then we get it just when they're home from school. Whatever happened to kids just playing when they get home from school. And mom's giving 2 year olds baths. I'm such a slacker! :)
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