It's Been A Long Time

I haven't even looked at my blog in years but I also haven't put together any photo albums, written in my journal, or anything else.  So I thought posting here would be better than nothing.  Spring 2011 we sold our house and bought a bigger one across the highway.  Considering how horribly the economy tanked, we were lucky to sell our house.  I was sad that we sort of broke even (paid a little out of pocket at closing) since we had been there 11 years and had put so many improvements (and money) into that house.  On the other hand we have a great house in a good neighborhood: almost 3,000 square feet, 4 bedrooms and an onsuite room, 3 bathrooms and 3 car garage, lots of yard.  Kids are growing up super fast.
Little T. started kindergarten, Big T. is now in 4th grade, Little J. is in middle school, Big J. started seminary and High School.
A few months ago my Dad lost his battle with cancer. What a wonderfully great man.  I really want to be like him when I grow up.
Right when we moved Tim got hired as the principal at the High School. It has been crazy busy for him and much more stressful.
I attended Girls Camp as an assistant one year and then as the Director the last two years.  I have amazing assistants who helped to create great camp experiences. My testimony has grown from those experiences.

What's New?

Start of School:
We have had an exciting start to the school year. The oldest is in Middle School and the next two are still in Elementary School. The oldest woke up before his alarm the first two mornings but this morning had to be woken up and he responded by telling me (insert whiny voice here), "I'm too tired, I don't want to go to school." So let it begin . . . early mornings getting ready for school. The other two do much better (mainly because they need to be ready for school 1 1/2 hours later than their older brother). They all seem to have good teachers and are enjoying their classes. I'm glad to be back into the normal routine. The evenings have been incredibly busy. The middle school has had 3 parent info/6th grade orientation/open house evenings in a week and then add band instrument rental night tonight and that makes 4 nights at the middle school in the last 9 days. That doesn't include regular things like Young Womens and church meetings, and Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. This might be a good time to mention that I'm really glad that we chose not to do soccer this season.

Projects around the house:
Painting the trim on the house
Cleaning out the pool to store for the winter
Finding time to mow the lawn (or as our kids have said when they were little "mow lawning")

Work:
Tim has been back at work for a month and has enjoyed riding his bike to and from work most mornings. As for me, housecleaning is never-ending work and I'd always rather be playing than cleaning house.

Church:
Tim has been called to serve on the High Council which means I'll be without him on Sundays and he'll also have meetings during the week.
I'm busy with the Young Women. We used to be combined with the other ward and we just split to be on our own.

Good Grades Tradition

Each semester when the kids get report cards they can earn dinner. Ok, ok, I mean a special dinner . . . we do feed our kids dinner each day. If they have all A's and B's then they get to choose to go to dinner wherever they want. Tim and I are glad when they choose the same place because then we don't have 3 different dinners to go to. Not the case this time. Big J. chose Round Table, Little J. chose Olive Garden (mmmm . . . good food), and Big T. chose Pizza Factory. It takes a few weeks to get those all in but the kids enjoy it and so do we. It's good motivation for them.

First Day of School

Today was the first day back to school. The boys were so excited, and a little anxious too. They were even worried about me and how much I'd miss them during the day. Now typically I do miss them quite a bit but this year I've been very excited for school to start. Mostly because our summer has been so crazy and so I'm craving to have my regular routine back. The boys all have great teachers. Big J. was excited about earning "Brain bucks" and other fun things in his class, Little J. enjoyed doing math the most, and Little T. was the most excited about Lunch and recess (afterall was his first FULL day of school). Now it's just me and Little T. at home for the day. I thought Little T. would really miss his big brothers but he seemed to enjoy playing by himself. He did really well during the day, not seeming to mind not having his brothers; however, when they came home Little T. got VERY excited.

School Time

Big J. finished fourth grade and he did some fun projects this year. For one section, they learned all about volcanoes. This is his project on Volcanoes after reading the Magic School Bus book about volcanoes.After learning about volcanoes each kid in his class got to build a volcano (paper mache then painted over a water bottle - ie. magma chamber). Then they all got a chance to erupt their volcano in class.
At the end of the year Big J. did a book report. They had to choose a chapter book with at least 100 pages. He chose Eragon which has 500 pages and he only had 3 weeks to read the whole thing. I was so proud of him when he finished that huge book! (I don't think I've ever read a book that long - for sure not in 3 weeks.) As part of his book report he made a word search, filled a box with items representing things from his book to tell about and made a model. Here is his model of "The Varden" from the book. It's a city in a mountain area with dragon lairs nearby (the holes). (Hope I didn't mess that up since I've never really read the book.)

School Update

Big J. got his progress report - straight A's. He is in the Gifted and Talented program and he is learning about the rainforest right now.
Little J. is in the highest reading group out of both second and third grades (he is in 2nd).
Little T. is loving learning all his letters and when he gets home from school he is just a little chatterbox telling me all about everything they do in class.
Baby T. loves when the boys come home from school. I think he gets a little lonely without them.
Tim is liking the new job - it's just long hours right now but I'm guessing it will keep getting better. I'm enjoying having a bit of a routine back now that school is back in session.

First Day of School

Monday was the kids first day of school. Big T started Kindergarten and is doing just fine. The other boys are doing great also although we are all a little on edge because even though we tried to get into a routine, we are still adjusting.

Time Capsule

I went to the kids assembly at school. They made a time capsule and each class created a poster to put in the time capsule. Many kids had memories of the "dust bowl" (also known as the playground). Their playground is all dirt so when the wind blows (as it usually does here) it was miserable for the kids. Luckily they recently got some grass but 98% of the play area is still dirt.