We Survived The 1st Week Of School!

Even though school started on Wednesday for Ronin, Jack, and I, it sure did feel like a very long week, easing ourselves back into it all-hahaha.  So far Jack LOVES, and I can't stress that enough, LOVES both of his teachers!!  Then again, so do I, which is why I personally requested them for him!  On Friday their classes got together and made "stone soup" and watched Pollyanna.  Ronin also seems to be very happy with his classes and school so far.  On the first day of school there were a lot of bus issues, after school, and Ronin's bus was an entire hour late picking him up from school! He got out of school at 2:25, and didn't get home until after 4pm!  The week was hot (still in the 90's) and exhausting for me, getting back into the swing of things, and by the end of the week, I was too hot, cranky, and done with all of it.

However, Saturday morning I woke up to a magical dense fog with a forecast of thunderstorms and temperatures in the 60's!  I'm going to be much, much happier this week!

As I've made the commitment to start blogging again, I've found that the photo hosting website (app) I use, on my phone, to upload and keep my pictures, to use on the blog, has malfunctioned and isn't currently uploading my pictures.  So I cannot post current pictures on here right now, until the issues are resolved.  My timing is terrible-hahahaha.

New Beginnings

Summer blog posting has been somewhat of a wash!  I took so many pictures and then got behind, and now I'm just overwhelmed trying to play catch-up.  I'm still going to fill in the summer months, one post at a time, but I'm starting my family journal-keeping fresh with today, the first day of school for Ronin and Jack.  They are beginning a fresh, new year at school, so it's the perfect time, I guess-hahaha.

Let's begin with Calvin:

Calvin started school 2 weeks ago, and absolutely LOVES being a sophomore in high school!  He loves his school, loves marching band and is having so much fun with it!  His group of friends has expanded, and they are always out together doing something.  He's becoming brave, growing into his skin, and is just a cool guy!  He likes his classes, except speech (because he hates public speaking), but it was a requirement, so he wanted to get it out of the way first.  Smart kid!

Ronin and Jack are now finally back in school too!  Ronin is in 8th grade, and Jack is in 4th.

Despite us still "enjoying" the hot summer weather, these two both opted to wear track suits on their first day back.  Jack thinks his new teachers are great and nice.  In 4th grade here, instead of having just one teacher, they start having a team (2 teachers).  His homeroom teacher, whom in this case, teaches math and science, and then the class switches to their social studies/ English teacher.  His homeroom teacher is actually the sister of his teacher last year-hahaha.

Ronin is taking weight lifting for PE, this trimester, and may have over worked himself today-hahaha.  He's so sore!  So far he likes his classes . . . 

After a long, boring summer of working, I'm glad to be back on our school year routine.  Yesterday a new 3rd grade class was added to the school, so I spent the evening moving storage and furniture out the of needed classroom, and set the classroom up for the new teacher.  Today as I started my normal, daily, school year work, I found myself sore and tired, so my first real day back at school was a little half-assed-hahaha.  Everything will be back to normal on Monday though (I'm giving myself the rest of this week to readjust-haha).

Feel free to scroll back to see if I've added more summer posts, but be prepared to start seeing many more current stories now.  I'm so glad day one of school is over and done.  Now we can settle back into regular life-hahaha.

Summer Review: Week 4

Later this week I'm leaving for a trip of a lifetime (well, for me, anyway, because I don't do this ever).  Alison and I are going to Las Vegas for our annual girl's weekend!  Last winter I bought Paul McCartney concert tickets on a whim- a once in a lifetime opportunity to see my favorite Beatle perform live!  So, that is the main reason for our trip and I am beyond excited!!

But first, here's how the boys spent their 4th week of summer break-

A trip to the nature park, and a long-lasting mighty stick battle throughout the entire park!

We spent the entire day in Rexburg!  We hit our favorite candy store, where Ronin found a hilarious Stalin/ Communist soda, and for the rest of the day, turned everything into a communism joke-hahaha.

We hit Ronin's favorite local store- Cal Ranch, where he always tries on cowboy hats and boots.  I have to remind him I'm not willing to buy him $200 cowboy boots until his feet stop growing 2 sizes each year-hahaha.

We played around town all day and met Michael for dinner, so he could introduce us to Del Taco, which was delicious!

We also started watching the Women's World Cup!

Summer Review: Week 3

The boys enjoyed rootbeer floats:

And, I have thrown a stick at Jack and injured his back-hahahaha.  I'd like to say it was an accident, but my aim is so bad, I honestly thought I would miss the little turd-haha.

Ronin ran over one of our sprinkler heads, moving the trampoline to mow the lawn.  We haven't replaced it yet because the boys moved the tramp over it and are having so much fun with it's strong spray-hahaha.

Calvin made a mighty Robin and Shrek shrine at the DI, and was so proud of himself!  It was still standing the next 2 times we visited the DI-hahaha.

Ronin found a hurt bird and tried to help it, before putting it safely on a tree branch,

And last, but not least- we said goodbye to Spike, our little zebra tarantula.  He sadly died, so Jack insisted we bury him in the back yard and have a funeral for him.

There you have it, our 3rd week of summer break!

Summer Review: Week 2

Our 2nd week of summer was pretty mellow and low key.  Besides my work and Ronin's school, we pretty much hung out at home and did nothing.  I do like to have at least one big outing each week, so on Wednesday we spent the afternoon at Rigby Lake, our local swimming hole.

Swimming at Rigby lake was really the one and only thing we did during our second week of summer-hahaha.  Oh yeah, other than this:

Jack's summer workbooks arrived-Bahahaha!  He has to complete 1-2 pages out of all 4 everyday, before he's allowed to do anything else.

A Bad Week For The Van

Look what happened to my windshield this week!  I am so mad!!  A rock flew out the back of a pickup truck we passed in IF.  I could see it fly at us, then POP!  This circle is the diameter of the round top to a soda can!

My windshield was so pretty, and now I have a giant circle right in the middle!

As if that wasn't enough damage for the week, as I was leaving my school to drive a block away to pick Ronin up from summer school at his school, I had a tire blow out!  I parked at Ronin's school and tried to change it myself, but I wasn't strong enough to budge the lug nuts!  Curse my weak, girl arms!  I made Michael come from Rexburg to help-hahaha.  And he gave Ronin a lesson in changing tires!

I ended up needing a new tire, and spent the afternoon waiting for it to be replaced by very incompetent people-hahaha.  I was not happy because my tires are only a year old!

We have some big drives coming up, during our summer travels, so I hope this is the extent of our car tragedies for the summer-hahaha.  I can live with a dinged windshield and tire replacement within a couple days of each other.  But please nothing else!

Summer Review: Week 1

We had a fun first week of summer, and so much happed!  I can't believe the boys have already been out of school for a week (2 for Calvin)!

  This is what we did during summer break, week 1:

We played in Idaho Falls and had some delicious Noodles.

My question is, how can Jack hold and eat with chopsticks perfectly, but can't hold a pencil correctly to save his life?

Because our pool STILL HASN'T ARRIVED, Jack has been playing in the sprinklers.

We've walked around the Idaho Falls river greenbeld.  I think it's a 3 mile walk.

We've gone out for ice cream!

I also ordered new pants for Calvin and Ronin, and got all of Jack's back-to-school clothes for fall-hahaha.

  I got a phone call the day before summer school was to begin at the middle school, to inform me that Ronin needed to attend.  So, Ronin is taking science in summer school all of June, and started this week too.  Calvin started babysitting in the mornings for me, Ronin started his weekly lawn care assignments, and I started my summer school cleaning.  Even though I'm still getting up at the same time, my new schedule is making me exhausted!  I think it's the 8 straight hours of cleaning, rather then how my job is normally broken up during the school year.  I get to do something fun in my school, during this summer too, which I'll write about another time . . . .   But all in all, our first week of summer has been pretty decent.  

Bathroom Redo

After years of my colorful flower shower curtain and various colorful towels, in May I decided to redo my bathroom.  I changed the color scheme to something a bit more mellow and calm, with nautical seafoams, creams, and dark blues.  Not my usual colors, but they give my bathroom a whole, new, relaxing vibe.  And I bought the shower curtain I've wanted for 3 years-hahaha.  

Until the day I replace our stupid jetted tub with a walk-in shower, this shower curtain will stay because it makes me so dang happy-hahaha.  Also, it all ties in with our ugly vanity's shell sinks.  Someday those will be replaced too.  I'm quite happy with how everything looks now!