And They're Off

Today is the first day of school for South Bend. My husband and two oldest daughters are off to teach and learn.

This year is a bit different for us. I now have kids at two different schools, Rebekah is at Nuner and Virginia is at Jefferson. Tate is teaching at Dickinson. And Ellyn will be starting pre-school in just a couple of weeks. So, really I guess that we have 4 different school schedules to work with.

Virginia was excited and a bit nervous for her first day. And to tell you the truth I am nervous and excited to hear about her day when she gets home. It is a long day. She gets on the bus at 7 am and then will get home around 3:20 pm or so. The dress code for her school is uniforms. Not too bad if you ask me. She won't be dressing funny this year.....sometimes I wondered about what she choose to wear. It wasn't too bad just a bit sloppy some days.

Rebekah was a tad upset and a little scared this morning- she has never rode the bus totally on her own. Her big sister has always been there with her. I came in the house while Virginia was waiting for the bus and Rebekah was sitting on the couch with sad eyes. I could tell that there was something wrong. It took some coaxing to get it out of her, but she finally admitted that she was a bit worried about being alone. She will be fine, she is brave! She gets picked up just before 8 am and dropped off around 2:30 pm.

Tate is coaching football again this year and teaching at Dickinson. Dickinson has has some changes in administration this year, new principal and vice principal. This has also brought about some dress changes for the teachers, they need to be a bit more professional. So, the man needs new shoes....he will have to wait awhile for those. Sorry, Mr. Principal, new shoes are just not in the budget right now. He will have to accept Tate's black boots for a while. They aren't bad.

Ellyn has a playmate still, Gavin. They will be starting school together after Labor Day. It looks like I may have some one on one time with Gavin on Mondays....what shall we do? I have some ideas. Ellyn will be in school Monday - Wednesday mornings, and Gavin will be in school Tuesday and Wednesday. That means I get 4 hours all to myself! Well, maybe, we will see.

My goal is to be involved at Jefferson and Nuner at least twice a month. And then help out Amy at the church a couple of days a month too.

I think that this school year will keep me busy!


REMEMBER TO BE MINDFUL OF SCHOOL BUSES AND THE CHILDREN GETTING ON THEM!

This One Time at Church Camp

I am sure that you have been waiting for this the last couple of weeks. I have been busy with cleaning house for birthday parties.

I survived CAMP!!! I had a blast! That is all you are getting.

Just kidding! What an experience! I was the cabin Mom. There were 19 girls in our cabin, one side was mostly Living Stones girls and the other side was mainly from North Liberty. They were a great bunch of girls to have in my cabin. Not to mention the other 4 staff that were there too.

Here are the higlights of the week:

Sunday: Getting to meet all the girls in the cabin; Pool party!
Monday: Getting divided into teams, my team had 8 girls and 4 boys. First "Torture Time"- bobbing for what the Junior staff thought were apples- nope ONIONS! Staff Hunt. Zip Line for my team.
Tuesday: Beautiful day! (all of them really were) Things did not get interesting until the evening when a storm came through and took out the power! They hooked up generators to get water to the cabins- that was about all we got.
Wednesday: Water Games! I had fun with this! Shaving Cream and M&Ms. I was covered form the neck up with shaving cream and my team got to throw M&Ms at my face! They had fun! Pool Party.
Thursday: I don't remember much. I do know that we did have fun. Virginia did the Zip Line! Oh, slip and slide! Oh yeah, Pastor Sam was tortured....Flour and Water is all I have to say.
Friday: Our last day. Sad, I had to say goodbye to a bunch of great kids and people.

Ghost Sam - the fan didn't work.

Getting ready for the Zip Line

http://youtu.be/Hw1MRuicWlk  Virginia's video.
 
I can't wait to do this again next year with both Virginia and Rebekah!

And, Amy, I am happy where I am in Kids Kanyon....I will stay for awhile ;)

Frustrations

Well, it is just about that time that summer comes to an end and a new beginning starts. School starts for my two oldest girls in two days. I am going to be honest- I am thrilled that they are going back to school! It has been a fun summer, but I am ready for them to go and they are ready to go too.

The last week and a half has been a little stressful. Virginia is starting a new school, moving on up to Jefferson Intermediate Center. This is not the stress part, the transportation is! We got her bus stop information. The bus stop they assigned her to is at the corner of 23rd Street and Wall Street. This meant that she would have to cross Ironwood to get there.....NO WAY! I went off- it is a good thing that we got the information on a Saturday, so I had a little time to cool down. So Monday morning I called the transportation department and told them my issues. The gentleman on the other end said "I understand your concerns" and would pass on my information to the proper person to be reviewed. Wednesday came and we still had no answers, so Tate called to find out what was going on. We were told that they were considering having her picked up at Hastings and Ironwood. Okay, I can love with that, but this was not final. We still had not heard anything by yesterday morning on what the final decision was. Tate called, they told him that the bus stop was not being changed and that she would have to cross to the stop she was given.....NO WAY! Tate was told that this now had to be taken up with the school she was attending, really? You can't make this decision before school starts? You can't make a common sense decision? So, he contacted the school. He spoke with them and sent them a nice email with our concerns, mentioning our accident in 2007. We were still awaiting an answer this morning. He called again to find out what was decided. Mind you I did not specifically ask for this outcome but I am THRILLED! She will be picked up at the front door! I was going to be happy with the corner by the fire hydrant, but no, right in front of the house!

Thank you Tate for helping me in this! And thank you to all of you that I have ranted to the last week and half!