You know what’s not right? Starting back to school at the beginning of August. Like the 7th to be precise. But, that’s what we were faced with at our new elementary school and thus we had to cram a few last days of fun in beforehand.
We grabbed our good friend Natalie and hit the zoo. Somedays as a Mom, you wish you had a cage like this….
And on other days, a magic machine to stop time….How are they so big? Sniff, sniff.
But, the time it does pass and before we knew it the first day of school was upon us. I was so very proud of these two. They were starting a brand new school in a brand new city without knowing a single soul and they were champs about it. They went into it with enthusiasm for a new adventure and great attitudes all around.
Jackson started 5th grade…he finally gets to be the Big Man on Campus and he was thrilled to hold that over someone’s head…. but since he didn’t yet know anyone, Reese had to suffice. He was also placed into a homeroom with a teacher who mentored all of the GT students, so I was optimistic that it would be a good year for him.
Reese started 3rd grade and was bursting with excitement over her new teacher AND that her classroom was in a mobile! She said it was like having her own apartment. Her teacher was in her second year and was cute as a button….God Bless her, that enthusiasm will surely dissipate after a few weeks.
Once I got the big kids off to school (which by the way started a whole hour earlier than in Fort Collins), I came home and saw this….it’s as if they were thinking “Whew, now we can FINALLY rest without those meddling kids!” (Scooby Doo reference anyone?)
But, seriously I never considered how stressful this move might have been on the dogs. Were they missing barking at that Shih Tzu from next door that had to cross the street to walk by our house? What about the squirrel who taunted them by staying just out of reach? Is Charlie depressed because his beloved grey couch no longer backs up to the window where he can see the world?
They look sad, don’t they?
Next up in the quest for a new normal was finding a place for this little lady to nurture her brain. There is a preschool on every corner it seems, so we set out to tour them and choose our favorite. And by favorite, I mean the one that afforded mom the most kid-free hours per week. In the middle we stopped for a Ladies Lunch at everyone’s favorite spot. Because, of course.
And while we’re on the topic of healthy eating…(what…we’re not?)….do you think if I drink this kombucha while eating those donuts, the good and bad cancel each other out? It’s my strategy anyway.
August 14th is our sweet brown dog’s birthday. He celebrated by taking a lengthy nap and then devouring his homemade dog food birthday cake. Now, before you feel bad for Walter because Charlie didn’t share, back up to March and see pics of Wally’s birthday. Hell would freeze over before Walter Woo would consider sharing his meals.
Stay on task, stay on task….after much searching we settled on the Foxes classroom at Parker United Methodist Church, and my foxy lady was very excited. Her class was small (9 kids) and mostly girls. She hadn’t done a church-based program before, so I was sure to warn inform the teachers about her lack of knowledge and propensity for swearing. Thanks a lot, John.
Speaking of John, he also has an August birthday. Now, he is of the misguided camp that believes that birthdays are no big deal. Says he doesn’t even care to have it acknowledged. I find that mentality to be complete bulls$#t. All of the other holidays throughout the year are shared with everyone else….who doesn’t like to have a day (or a season) to be all about you? So, I make sure that we at least have some sort of nice-ish dinner and a crappy Dairy Queen ice cream cake (yuck). I secretly think that if I did NOT do these things and just let his day go by without acknowledgement, he would be super sad. Maybe next year I’ll try…..
My photography is awesome, isn’t it?
This next tidbit has no chronological significance, but I found it to be just hilarious. One day after school/work, I walked into the kitchen to see my oldest child coloring. Wait…what? Yup, John had his box of crayons and his “project” out and was hard at work creating a color-coded map of his sprinkler zones in the yard. NERD!!!
Next up, what can only be billed as the MOST overrated event of the year…the eclipse. Blah, blah, blah….once every 50 years…blah, blah. I mean you’d have thought we were seeing the sun for the first time ever. People were loading their families into the car and driving to Nebraska (?!) to be in the “zone of totality” to get the best view. I agreed to go to the kids’ school to “help” during the prime viewing time, which translated into yelling at the misbehaved ones for looking at it without their glasses on. The whole event was underwhelming at best. Honestly, I caught everything I needed to see from the 6-hour live TV broadcast. I mean, when you’ve seen one eclipse in 10th grade science class, you’ve seen it all, right?
One last story picking on Johnny Onion before I sign off for the month. Although it would seem like a crazy idea to most considering we just moved in, we invited a bunch of house guests for Labor Day weekend. And, even though I’ve seen some of these “gentleman” sleep on the floor or in the bushes, I thought I’d best get the guest rooms ready. So, off I went in search of boxes that were very carefully labeled with BIG BLACK SHARPIE MARKER saying “guest room linens.” I’ve packed and unpacked enough houses now that I have it down to a science and have saved myself much aggravation incorporating my OCD tendencies.
So, you can imagine my dismay when a very large box of sheets and blankets was nowhere to be found. I looked e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e…..twice. Maybe it got left in the moving truck? Maybe it was inadvertently put in the storage room even though it was labeled GUEST ROOM? The movers had a big job and I could forgive one little mistake. Nope….all boxes were in their proper rooms, albeit most of them still taped up.
Finally, I just started opening up every box that was still intact, no matter what it said on the top. Lo and behold, amongst the TOY ROOM boxes, I found this….
Guess who’s handwriting that is? Yup. Not mine. This is why I don’t let him help. I guess a person with a sense of humor would say that it’s labeled “games”…maybe he was providing you a little scavenger hunt. I am not that person.
Even Walter was annoyed.
