2nd Week of School

Thankfully it was a short week because of Labor Day, but man did it feel long.   We made it through the second week of school.  Will's homework started for real and he was in a bit of shock.  He had a 2nd grade teacher that hardly gave any homework.  Lindy always had more than he did.  He was forever off doing things while she was still toiling away.  He was surprised at the amount of homework he had the first night.  I heard, "Third grade is a lot different" many times that week.  He isn't used to it, but it's good for him!  ha!  Now Lindy isn't the only one doing homework!   I spent the week getting ready for my consignment sale.  Which means there were piles of clothes, hangers, tags and safety pins all over the den. 

Thursday night I got to babysit Ellie for the first time.  We had so much fun together!  I don't think I'll get to watch her much because she has one grandmother that lives in town and another one that comes often from out of town.  Ed, Jamie and all the grandmothers (and a grandfather) were together at an event of Jamie's, so that left me!  It was sweet getting to watch a baby.  Lindy doubted my skills and wanted to know what babies I had ever watched!  ha!  It was like riding a bike - came right back to me.  There is nothing sweeter than holding a sleeping baby!

Friday night I had to take my stuff to the consignment sale and I was on setup duty.  I got there at 5pm, we set up, brought our stuff in at 6pm and we got to shop at 7:15pm.  I was home around 9pm. 

Saturday was a full and fun day.  Will started a new session of tennis lessons at the park across the street.  It was also the day of the big Bookmarks festival that Aunt Jamie puts on at her job.  Drew left to go hear one of the authors while Lindy and I took Will to tennis.  We amused ourselves by downloading Snapchat and playing with the filters.  As soon as he was done we loaded up and headed to the book festival ourselves.  We got there right in time to see Lauren Tarshis, who writes the I Survived books, give a talk.  She was really interesting to listen to.  We went and got in line to meet her and get Will's book signed.  We ate lunch and had some icies before getting in line to meet Annie Barrows, who writes the Ivy and Bean books.  We missed her talk but Lindy got a book signed by her.  The last author we were able to see was Kate DiCamillo and she was great too.  I was really excited to hear her.  We had read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to the kids so they knew her books.  We got in and got seats and unfortunately I had to leave after 15 minutes.  Drew and the kids stayed but I had to go get my clothes from the consignment sale that didn't sell.   Drew and the kids went and met her and got her to sign our book.  We were able to see Mimo, Aunt Anna and Brian, Uncle Ed, and Aunt Jamie's parents and their best friends at the festival.  I met my family back at home when we were all done.  Aunt Anna and Uncle Brian came over for dinner and to hang out and we once again amused ourselves with our new favorite app, Snapchat. 

Sunday we had church and then I worked on packing clothes up.  I sorted the ones that didn't sell and packed up a bunch of summer clothes.   I eventually left to go meet my mom and her friend and we listened to a talk by John Grisham!  He was the closing author for the book festival.  We all really enjoyed his talk.  We went to dinner afterwards and then we all headed our separate ways. 

Just a few pictures from the week.  But some fun ones with authors!

Ellie loves her Aunt Jamie!

Lindy at Will's tennis lesson

 Will and Lauren Tarshis.  She writes the I Survived series of books.  The funny thing is she looked up and Drew was standing over out of the way.  She goes, "Is that your dad?  You look just like him!" 

 Yay for personalized books!

 Lindy and Annie Barrows!

 

 Lindy and her personalized Ivy & Bean book!

 Lindy and Will and Kate DiCamillo!  So cool to meet her!

 Personalized to them!

 Fun with Snapchat! 

 

First Day of 3rd Grade

School started bright and early on Monday, August 29th.  It was a bit of a tough week having to go five full days just starting back.  But we made it!

3rd grade!  Can you believe it?  I can't.  I don't know how this happened so quickly.  I wish they were just starting kindergarten.  I'd love to go back to learning the ABC's. ha!

Lindy has Ms. Taylor this year and is thankfully staying in her room all day.  It was a bit of a crazy morning for Lindy.  Because she got new hearing aids this summer, her equipment changed.   Her old hearing aids had an integrated FM boot on them.  It stayed on all the time and her teacher just turned her FM system on each morning.  On the first day of school her hearing therapist was there as soon as we walked in to help get her equipment up and running.  She has to take off her battery door and put on a new shoe.  This shoe stays on all the time.  They ordered pink shoes to match her hearing aids but they haven't come in yet so right now she has a tan shoe.  This shoe is basically just a different battery door.  Then she has to attach an FM receiver to her hearing aids every morning.  It's school property so it's not allowed to leave the property.  Each morning she has to put it on the end of the shoe and then she has to take it off every afternoon.   Once her hearing therapist got the equipment all on but the FM didn't work.  I stayed for awhile but eventually had to leave.  Her therapist did call me an hour later to tell me she finally got it working.  She only has the FM system in one ear right now, which is better than nothing, but I look forward to getting both ears up and running. 

Will is actually switching classes this year.  He is doing the AG program so he goes to another teacher for language arts and math.  He described his first day as confusing!  He checks into his homeroom, Mrs. Munford, puts his lunch down and then goes to Mrs. Lipe's room.  He stays there till 11:30am and goes back to finish the day with Mrs. Munford.  He has lunch, specials, recess, and science or social studies with her.  He has a desk in Mrs. Munford's class, but not in Mrs. Lipe's.  He has to carry everything he needs for Mrs. Lipe's class in his backpack.  Poor kid is weighed down everyday.  It took a few days to get things figured out but I think he has it now. 

There were a few kinks the first week but overall we made it through.  Friday night we were all exhausted and just hung out at home.  Saturday we did chores and work around the house.   The kids  were excited to relax after their big first week of 3rd grade.

Sunday we had church and then we packed up and headed to my parents' for the Labor Day holiday.   Katie, Kris, Micah and Claire arrived soon after we did and we had a fun day of playing in the pool.  It was a little bit chilly in the pool but the kids still had fun.  We had a yummy dinner and the kids swam some more before the Bryants headed home.  Monday we had another pool day.  My parents' best friends' granddaughter and her fiancée came up from Charlotte to visit.  We played in the pool, ate dinner and headed home.  It was nice to have Saturday to get stuff done around the house but have two more days to do something fun. 

The first day of school pics!

Breakfast for some 3rd graders!

 First day of school pics!  3rd grade???

 Aiden must have been doing something crazy inside!

 Will and Mrs. Munford

 Will and Mrs. Lipe

 Lindy and Mrs. Taylor

 Lindy and Mrs. Rose Lynne - her hearing teacher

 In June 2015 we started the license plate game on our trip to FL.  We continued to play around town and on our trip to MO for Thanksgiving.  We found every license plate except North Dakota.  We went months looking for ND and I finally found it the first week of school!  We finally got all 50 states!! 

 Will and I have worked hard on finding the license plates!  He was excited too!

 Mr. Pringle Duck face

 Swimming with the Bryants - Drew and Katie about to race!

 Real pic

 Funny pic!

Last Week of Summer

I didn't plan any camps the last week of the summer so that the kids could just relax and enjoy their last week of freedom.  That did mean I needed to find childcare, though, which can be tough.

Things got a little complicated when Lindy came down with her cold.  I had to go out of town to SC for work so I had asked Lynn to watch Lindy and Will Monday and Tuesday.  She was actually going to keep them at her house and they were going to spend the night with her Monday night.  I was up and out the door at 6:30am that morning but Drew said Lindy woke up feeling really lousy.  Plan B went into affect and Lynn ended up coming to our house so Lindy could lie around at home.  They stayed at home Monday night instead of Lynn's.  Tuesday Lindy woke up a little better so Drew did take them over there Tuesday.  I got back from SC Tuesday evening.

Wednesday I had planned to take the kids to work with me.  In fact we did go do one work errand but then I ended up taking the kids to Lynn's.  My coworker is pregnant and I didn't want to get her - or the others - sick with Lindy's cold.  I knew it would be a long day if she didn't feel great.  Mimo saved the day (and the beginning of the week).

Drew was actually able to take a couple days off of work and so he stayed with them Thursday and Friday.  Thursday they went to see Pete's Dragon at the movies and then headed to PT for Lindy.  She got her brand new brace we had cast a couple weeks ago.  We were not too excited to go back up to an SMO but we will do what she needs.  Her PT is hoping it helps straighten out her feet a bit since they do turn in slightly. 

They left PT, went and grabbed dinner, and then met me at school for Open House.  What what?  How can it be time for Open House??!?  As usual, it was a pretty crazy night.  This year Will has two teachers so that was two classrooms to visit for him.  Lindy has one teacher and her vision teacher.  We got around to all four and then we headed to the playground to review what Lindy can and cannot do.  I think we were the last family to leave the school.  We also made some stops at old teacher classrooms to say hi. 

Friday they hung around the house so Lindy could continue resting and so they could just have a day to do nothing before school started.  They all enjoyed a day at home.  Friday night Drew and I took Will to watch the evening matches at the Winston-Salem Open tennis tournament.  Last year we took Lindy but she didn't enjoy it so we planned a special night for Will.  Lindy had fun hanging with Mimo - which she enjoyed much more than sitting quietly through tennis matches.  We had a lot of fun with Will.  We hardly ever do one on one things so it was nice.  We saw a great semifinal match and I actually got a ball signed by the winner while Will was in the bathroom.  The same guy went on to win the entire tournament so that was neat.  We stayed for the start of the doubles match before heading to get sister and then home. 

Saturday morning I was up and at Walmart at 7:30am getting school supplies.  I waited till I got teacher lists at Open House to go shopping.  But I wasn't going in the afternoon that weekend so I went super early.   We had a long Friday night with Lindy coughing all night long.  I told Drew if we were worried about Lindy's cough I thought we should call the doctor and get her in since school was starting Monday.  He called while I was at Walmart and they could see her at 9:30am.  Drew had to wake them up to go and wow they were not happy.  I came home to Will laying on the floor pouting and Lindy was just mad and saying she wasn't going.  They had been looking forward to sleeping in and were mad.  They got to sleep till 8am but it wasn't long enough for them I guess.

I had to go do some work stuff so Drew headed to the doctor with them.  Thankfully Lindy's lungs sounded clear, even though she sounded awful.  After the pneumonia a few years back, we don't mess with her cough too much.   None of the medicines we were giving her seemed to be making her better so we wanted to get it checked out.  Even though it turned out fine, I'm glad we checked.  I was gone most of the afternoon for work stuff but we got back and spent a lazy evening at home. 

Sunday we had church and then we went to Lynn's for lunch and to celebrate Ed and Brian's birthdays.  We had a nice lunch before heading home for the last night before school......

 

My coworkers and I checking out downtown Greensville, SC

 Drew taught us a new trick that involves crackers and windows down?!?!

 Hanging with the little man!

 Will and Bo

 We watched P. Carreno Busta win Friday night and he won the whole tournament Saturday!

 Uncle Drew and Ellie

Crazy, silly Aunt Anna!

Will and Drew petting silly Pooka

Last Week of Summer Camp

Backing up to the week of August 15th...It was the last week of summer camp for the kids.  They did a little bit of everything this summer and it sure did make it go by quickly.  I think they enjoyed the summer and they had some fun field trips with their camps.  

The last week of camp was the State Fair themed week.  They went Monday through Thursday that week.  Lindy came home from camp on Monday with her face completely painted like a Doberman Pincher.  Monday night we went out to eat with Mike and Janice.  We hadn't seen them for awhile and it was pure luck that it worked out to eat with them while they were in town.  We had other plans that changed at the last minute and we got to meet at the ice cream shop.  We've been meeting them at the ice cream shop for the last 6 years and I hope we never stop!   

The kids had their 9 year old well child visits on Tuesday the 16th.  Overall things are good.  No major concerns, although Will's growth did slow down a bit.  Lindy gained 5lbs and grew 2.25 inches this year.  Great growth, even if it's on her own curve.  Will gained 3lbs and grew 1.5 inches.  That's a little lower than usual.  While not totally concerned, she does want him to get 200-300 more calories in every day.  She wants him to eat them at night before going to bed.  That has been a change for us but he has done pretty well.  He is usually eating a protein bar and a glass of milk and that gets him up to 300.  We hope it works and he grows a little more this year.  Lindy weighed around 48 pounds and Will around 38.  They were the exact same height.  I took them to camp after the appointment and then we ate dinner with Lynn that evening.   

Wednesday the kids went to camp and they went on a field trip.  They went to a park in Burlington.  Will said it seemed really fun from the outside but then it was a little boring once you did everything inside.  There were some sort of rides, like a carousel and train.  In the afternoon they went to a bounce house in Greensboro and I think they loved that.  

Thursday was a normal camp day but we had a busy evening.  We got Will a haircut right after work, grabbed a pizza for dinner, put Lindy through the shower and then met our photographer for 9 year old pictures.  One of my least favorite days of the year.  I ask for family pictures once, maybe twice a year, and everyone hates it.  Kids don't realize that they make the whole thing last longer by misbehaving.  Just stand and smile and we'd be out of there faster.  I always come away from pictures so frustrated.  Hopefully they will be worth it in the end!  

Friday the kids were supposed to take a field trip with the camp and they were going swimming.  I didn't feel comfortable with that so Lynn offered to keep them for the day.   We had a lazy night but a fun Saturday. 

Saturday morning we met the Bryants for a tubing trip.  We met up in Stokes County and we tubed down the Dan River.  None of us had ever been (even though we lived there for 7 years).  One reason we never went was because I had always heard there were snakes in the Dan.  We had a picnic lunch white waiting for the Bryants to get there.  It was a little confusing getting it all figured out but we eventually got on our bus and got dropped off at the top of the tubing route.  And wouldn't you know it, Lindy and I got in the river and, no joke, two minutes later a snake swims under my feet and keeps going about its merry way.   I about died.  Drew and Will weren't even in the water yet!  There is no getting out though.  Once you are in you have to float your way 3 miles to the exit part.  Thankfully we never saw another one.  We had a great time and the day was perfect.  There was a little incident with Drew and Will floating under a tree at the very end.  We had the kids tied to our tubes because the water was way up and moving faster in some parts.  One of them floated toward the tree and before I knew it, Will was under his tube and they were all tangled up with the tree!  Drew managed to get them loose but he lost a hat in the process.  I caught Will's water bottle that was floating down the river.  It was a dramatic ending to the trip!   

Lindy had woken up that morning with a bit of a cold.  By the time we were done she wasn't feeling very good.  We headed home and her cold continued to get worse.  The doctor asked me on Tuesday if I had all Lindy's medicines.  I forgot to check so I honestly didn't know.  I told her we had had the healthiest winter yet.  I never even used Lindy's inhaler.  I told her I'd check them and let her know if I needed them.  I didn't think it'd be 5 days later I would be messaging her for more meds.  Both things I give her when she gets sick were out of date.  I jinxed myself at the doctor! 

Lindy had a fever and didn't feel good on Sunday morning.  I went and taught Sunday school with Will while Lindy stayed home with Lindy.  I left a few minutes early and came home and Drew headed to church.  Lynn, Brian and Anna came to church so Will had them to sit with.  They came over for lunch afterwards.   I spent the afternoon getting our lives in order.  I had stacks of papers from last school year I had not been through.  I got all that sorted and filed away.  It is always nice to get things in order. 

Our little Doberman Pincher

 Fun glasses from camp

  Katie, Micah, and the cooler

 Claire and Kris

 Drew and Will

 Me and my Girl

 She alternated between looking like she felt good

and looking like she didn't feel good.

   Tubing and Tootsie roll pops

 A panoramic of the whole group - and my feet.