End of August

I just need to vent for a minute.  Fair warning!

In high school I used to say, "I get sick every time the seasons change!"  Well, it's true.  I get horrible allergies, and then I get an infection in the back of my nose, and then it moves down to my throat and then I get a cough.  It really stinks, and it just wipes me out.  Ugh.

In other news, Jeremy went on a trip up to Nutrioso with his dad and Aaron.  They were gone Friday night until Sunday night.  I'll have to steal some pictures and video from that.  They went to church and found cousins they didn't know they had who knew where some grave sites were that nobody knew where to find.  So Jeremy was able to go get pictures of those.  He says his Granddad made those beautiful headstones.  Anyway, they found lots of them at 3 different burial sites.  Pretty incredible.  They did some hiking and took some video of Dad talking about the places they went.  They found his childhood home and the place where his Mack grandparents lived.  Anway, pretty cool.  And everything was beautiful and green and cool.  Sounds like it was a really nice trip.  And then he had a day off yesterday.  Sweet!

Jeremy has been working an hour overtime every day for like a year.  It's been really helpful.  They just changed work hours, though, so now he'll work 5 days one week and 4 the next.  We're looking forward to having him home every other Friday, but hopefully the financial hit won't be so bad.  And I think every other Friday will now be Temple day for us, and that would be amazing!!  That's the plan.

I visited Timmy's classroom about 2 weeks into the school year for a parent-teacher night.  We learned lots of useful info, and I was able to look around Timmy's class.  This and the one below are pieces of artwork Timmy did.  What can I say?  He's one of a kind. XD  (This kid is holding a guy with his mouth open saying that he wants turkey.  The speech bubble has a picture of a cooked turkey in it.)

Drawing more happies.

Benji had to make a poster about any book he chose for his English class.  I think it came out pretty good. :)

Michael got his glasses broken like 2 weeks into school.  He was playing dodgeball and got hit in the face.  No more glasses while playing dodgeball!!!  Anyway, these are the ones we're waiting for.  The earpieces are red, not pink like they look here.  We ordered them over 2 weeks ago.  Tapping my foot... 

Timmy got a new lunchbox.

Bubby and Henry needed one too.  They were so happy!  Henry's came a little later, but it's green with just a simple happy face on it.  He does like happies. :)

This is the back of this year's THS band shirt.  Check it out!  Benji's name is on the top line, and they spelled it right! (First and last!) :)

The night of the first home game there was a school dance in the parking lot at the high school.  Around 11:00 PM an old guy who was upset about the noise came and unplugged the sound equipment, waved a gun around, and assaulted a teacher.  (I'm not sure what "assaulted" means in this case.  That's all the news said on the subject.)  Some football players tackled him, but everyone was freaking out.  The cops came, he was taken to the hospital, and then to jail.  You can't really blame the poor guy.  It was late.  I'm sure he was trying to sleep, and lack of sleep can make you crazy, but man!  Those poor kids!  Thankfully, Benji came straight home after the game and fell asleep like right away.  He was too tired to go to the dance.  I'm glad he missed that!

The front

Opening social for Seminary was party in a huge muddy puddle.  It was in a water retention area at the high school.  They certainly got covered!  We made them hose off before coming in.  I washed their clothes twice, and the lint trap was still full of dirt when it stopped.  I guess I should've washed them another time or two!

Hyrum's last first day of school until after his mission!  He's taking two big English classes (Yikes!) along with a bunch of electives, just to make sure he's full time so he can get the Pell Grant.  His English 102 won't start until October, though, and Electricity will end in October, so that's nice!  He's taking Book of Mormon at the Institute and is in the choir there, as well as Men's Chorus with Dr. Burrows, the new choir director at the college.  He says Men's Chorus is pretty small this year.  There were only like 10 people the first day, but they've gotten a few more since then.  He's excited about choir this year.  I guess this is his first experience singing with women in a choir - in the Institute one.  He's had fun being part of Institute, and I'm so glad.

Joshua got his permit!  He got it on his first try!  For the permit you have to take a written test.  We had him try all the practice tests, and then he was able to do the test at home, and he said it was easy since he'd taken the practice ones.  I have heard stories about people who've taken the test at home and then had to take it again in person even though they passed.  I was worried!  But the lady just checked his eyes and filled out the paperwork and handed him his permit.  Whabam!  Pretty great. :)

Timmy made some kind of race track or something and some cars to drive on it.  I guess.  I don't always understand his little creations, but I love them!  I don't even really mind the mess.

Timmy lost another tooth!  It was a molar with a cap. Yea!!

This cracked me up.  He needs to learn about the correct use of apostrophes, but Timmy is doing great. :)

His teacher had me come into his class and talk to them again like last year.  I'm glad I can do that.  So far he's doing pretty good.  I worry about him getting older because kids can be real jerks as they get older, and I don't want him dealing with mean kids.  He already has to some extent.  As long as he's happy and progressing, though, I'm going to not worry too much.  Everyone needs to learn to deal with that.  I just hope he'll continue to be OK!

Jill sleeping

Fancy hair, huh? ;)

We had a service project for pack meeting at the park.  I ended up taking care of little ones for a while, but they had fun.  We still only have one or two Webelos each time.  But the two who come most often were able to get some awards this time.  Hooray!

Bubby and Timmy

I know you won't believe it

I know you won't believe it, but Blogger doesn't put in half of my photos unless I upload them.  Dang it!!

First Half of August

This and the next one are actually from the Burk Reunion.

This is Brookie, Charity, and Jill.

Jeremy and Ammon (Anne's)

My baby's getting too big!!

Bubby's too big too!

Fire restrictions meant that Michael's scout camp got postponed.  They went at the beginning of August, up to Big Lake.  Our scoutmaster is awesome!  The boys had a great time. 

Our scoutmaster was Ethan Estes, but he was just released on Sunday, and Shawn Nelson was called.  He'll do great too!  I don't envy him that job, though!  XD

 The Scoutmaster sent me these pictures of Michael. :) I appreciated that.

 

I was folding laundry and little ones were trying to climb on the table, on my piles.  Jeremy always ends up being the one to distract them while I do laundry.  They were having a great time on the swing set.

This is how he smiles lately - like he's asking, "Is this OK?"

Bubby drew himself. :)

Benji built this shelf to hold all our camping stuff.  Hooray!!  And Hyrum cleaned up the garage too.  Hooray!

I think this is Henry.  He was sleeping with the blankets wrapped around his head.  Ha ha!

I made a new sign for our house!  Now my Model Team Express ladies can find me. ;)

This picture was on here last year, and it's still there!  Benji was in the book club.  Now Michael's in it.

5 kiddos on the first day at Thatcher Schools.  Benji is a Freshman, Michael is in 7th Grade, Jill is in 3rd Grade, and Timmy's in 1st Grade.

Putting the kiddos into school has been such a pain!  It's so much easier to take them out than to put them in.  A month or two ago Jeremy had a prompting while he was in the Temple that Joshua should go to high school.  Joshua didn't want to go.  We convinced him to just try it.  So I made up his transcript, and I filled out all the paperwork to enroll him and to re-enroll Michael and Jill.  Lots of paperwork!  Jill had to test.  She wanted to be in fourth grade, but they put her in third.  It works.  She could go either way since she has a summer birthday.  And now a couple of weeks in I feel like they absolutely made the right choice there.  She's doing good and is finding nicer friends than she had before, so I'm glad.  Michael was not asked to test, and I didn't press it because I didn't want to make him test if he didn't have to.  Ha ha!  They did ask if I had any documentation of what he did.  I don't.  Note to self: keep better records.  But when I told them that, they said, "OK, well, thanks!" and hung up. :)  Hooray!  Maybe they figure his first couple of weeks were his test? ;)  

And then Joshua - Because we don't really follow a curriculum and the school had no way to substantiate what was on his transcript that I made other than the classes he took at the college, they had to start him from the beginning.  We enrolled him as a sophomore and they put him in all freshman classes.  (English 102 is fine, but apparently it doesn't count as anything for high school.  That seems backwards, but I don't get to make the rules.)  He went the first day feeling cautiously optimistic that maybe he'd like it even though the walls are all boring white.  He hated it.  I imagine him walking along the blank white halls looking for classes in the 5 minutes they have between classes, feeling overwhelmed by all the people and all the noise.  And nobody in his classes were really his age, and a lot of them are super immature and are only there because they have to be.  It was all just culture shock for him.  Here he's been homeschooled since 2013 and then he went to the college with its wide open spaces and trees and grass and people who were more mature and chose to be there, and then suddenly he's thrown in with tons of immature kids who would rather be doing anything else in an overwhelming environment.  Anyway, we knew it probably wouldn't last when we put him in, though I did secretly hope he'd stick it out.  Jeremy finally made a deal with him - "You get your permit and we'll withdraw you from high school."  So Joshua got right to work.  He took all the practice tests, and he passed that test online last Friday, and then we went to the MVD on Monday and got his permit.  Easy peasy!  

So on Tuesday morning I took him to Seminary (He was put in 2nd hour, and we thought that was good, so we figure we'll keep him there for now.), and then I went in to the office and withdrew him and turned in his biology textbook.  They gave me the withdrawal form, and we headed over to the Graham County School Superintendent.  I actually like going there.  I like the office, and the people are nice.  I had a homeschool affidavit all filled out for Joshua to update his records, but they said once kids are 16 they don't keep track of their schooling anymore.  So I updated their records to show that Michael and Jill are back in school.  Then we went to the library to sign Joshua up for their free GED classes.  It turned out they needed a notarized letter from he saying he has permission to participate in their classes.  This allows him to sign his own paperwork and stuff, since it is an adult program.  So we ran back to the courthouse because I knew the school superintendent has a notary, they notarized the letter, and he went back to the library.  And then it turned out he was missing a photo ID.  His brand new permit got left at home, but they let us fill out the forms anyway.  And today after Seminary I picked him up and took him to do the pretest and let them copy his permit.  He's still at it.  It's been almost 4 hours.  I'm not sure when he'll be done, but I sure feel for him!  We waited for a couple of hours, but then we went home.  Anyway, after he takes this pretest they can put him in the classes he needs to be able to pass the GED.  That will be great!  Then in the spring he can hopefully take a full load and get a Pell Grant at the college.  I bet he might even be able to work for Aaron because Hyrum will be done then.  /sob  Another heartache for another day.

So Timmy doesn't want to ride the bus ever this year because the bus driver brought him back to school that once.  He can't get over it.  And Michael can't ride the bus with his cello, and now he has orchestra Monday-Thursday.  So I may as well drop everyone off.  Jill rides the bus now because she thinks that's super fun.  Benji has to be there an hour early for band, so I take him to band, get other people ready, and then take all of them.  I'm glad that Hyrum can drive his own buns.  Ha ha!  And lately, Timmy's been fussing about going to school.  I don't know why.  At the end of the day he always says he enjoyed it.  But the next day he doesn't want to go back.  I started reading to him again for 5-10 minutes before we have to go, and for some reason, that kicks out of his head any protests about going, and he goes happily after that.  Magic!  Yea for Roald Dahl!   He's definitely one of my favorite authors ever.

Bubby wishes he could go.  He will be 5 on September 13, and he's reading, but he has to wait until next year.  I don't mind. :)

Bye, Benji!

Bye, Joshua!

Bye, Michael!

Bye, Jill!

Bye, Timmy (orange shirt, quite happy to be there)

Everyone helped build this one night.

So the next morning Henry started building.

It ended up like this!  It took him like 30 minutes to an hour to get it all just right.

Then he put them all carefully in this pile.

And then Bubby woke up and they played some more.  It's been great!  I ask him, "Do you want to play blocks?"  And Henry says, "Yeah. Box."  And off he goes to very carefully line them all up.  Those and the train set get used every day lately.

Our friend Joe Jarvis came over one day, and he played too. :)

We like Joe.  He just shows up whenever, and I'm glad he does, because I don't ever know if he has food.  He is fun to chat with, and he's interested in whatever we're doing.  And he likes to bring up perplexing gospel topics and discuss them with Jeremy at length.  It's kind of fun. :)

Right now I think he's in between jobs.  He'd been working with Val, but that job has pretty much dried up I think.  He's trying to get on as a substitute at the schools.  He'd be such a fun substitute!

One day I went to the thrift store looking for a night stand, and I came home with a night stand and a couch for $10! :D Goodbye, ugly, grimy gray couch.  Hello, comfy blue one, even if it looks 80's-ish.  It's in good shape.