And just like that, another summer is over and it's time for school to start again. I think the first day of school and birthdays are the times that it really hits me how fast time has gone and how quickly my kids are growing up.
Kendall is a senior this year! I'm pretty sure I was just snapping his first day of kindergarten picture and now here we are sending him off to his last first day of school. And I'm sorry the pictures aren't great. That's what happens when your kids have to leave for school before the sun comes up in the morning!
Lynnsey is off to high school with her first day of 9th grade. I love that she and Kendall get to have a year together at the same school. Kendall is a sweet big brother and has done a great job showing Lynnsey the ropes so she has been able to get involved and meet some great people right off the bat.
Spencer sums things up well when he says: "Who in the world decided that it would be a good idea to gather up the worst ages of kids and put them all together in one building?" As a 7th grader, he is right in the middle of middle school and he is just really not a fan. Although, this year seems to be going better for him than last year so that's about all we can hope for.
Kaya is still going to school right across the street so I'm glad that I get to keep her close for a couple more years. She's in 4th grade this year and is absolutely loving it. She lucked out with a great teacher, Mr. Coats, and some well-behaved (for the most part) classmates. It was a fun first day this year when a community member put out a call for all the men in the community to come out dressed in their best to welcome the kids to their first day of school. There were over a hundred people who came, mostly men but some women too including some of the retired teachers. They all lined up along the sidewalk and as kids would walk up to the school, all the people would cheer for them and wave and give high fives. The kids just ate it all up and it was so much fun to see their expressions as they were given such a welcome.
I had a first day of school this year too! Things happened pretty quickly and I still can't believe I actually decided to do it, but I enrolled in the BYU-Idaho Pathway program. Ruth Montross did it last year and wanted me to do it with her but the meeting location was in Grand Rapids which would have meant making an hour and a half drive every week to go to class and it just seemed like too much at the time. But this year, they moved the meeting location to Jackson which is only about a twenty minute drive from home. I had actually planned on getting a full time job this year, maybe as a parapro at the elementary school or something. But when this opportunity presented itself, it seemed like things fell into place and pointed me in that direction instead. I knew if I didn't take it now, I probably wouldn't ever do it and that would mean I'd never finish my college degree which is something I've always wanted to do. Kalen and I talked it over and decided it was too good a chance to pass up so I signed up and started classes a week after the kids. It's a great program so far. It lasts for a year, or three semesters. Each semester we take two classes, a religion class and an academic class. My first semester was the first half of the Book of Mormon and a general studies class that was designed to teach study and research skills and to sort of get us back into the swing of being students. The second semester is the last half of the Book of Mormon and a math class (the biggest cause of my almost not enrolling!). And the third semester is a teachings of the Savior class and an English class. Classes are all online except every Thursday night we have what's called a Gathering where we meet with other students in the program. We started with 25 students but are down to about 15 now. It's a great program but it's more of a time commitment than some people expected so we lost a few of the students. At the completion of the program, we can then enroll in a BYU-Idaho online degree program for an incredibly reduced tuition rate ($69/ credit hour) and they will take our old transcripts and do their best to transfer every possible credit they can so that it will take us the least amount of time possible to finish a degree. I'm crossing my fingers that a ton of my credits will transfer! At any rate, it's definitely been an adventure and a big change. My babysitting schedule this year is perfect for being a student. I get the kids off to school in the morning and then work on my classes for most of the day and then go pick up the kids from school. The only drawback is that I'm not contributing to our finances as much as I would like to or as much as we need. So I have been trying to keep an eye out for part time jobs that I could do during the time when the kids are at school. If I do find something, that will mean having a lot more to juggle trying to squeeze in studying at night or early in the morning, but so far nothing has worked out so I'm just taking advantage of the study time I do have and trying to be as frugal as possible to help us get through each month financially.
Kendall auditioned for Marshall Singer's last spring and got in. It's a fun choir at the high school that has some really talented singers in it so it's pretty great that Kendall made the cut. He has really improved his singing ability over the years and it's largely due to his involvement in the school musicals. Anyway every year the Singers perform a medley of songs at the Marshall Home Tour. They dress up in old fashioned clothes and sing songs from the 1800's. We were able to go and see one of their performances and it was pretty impressive even if some of the songs and dances were a bit cheesy.
As always, we participated in the Festival of the Forks here in town. Only this year, our main street was all torn up because they are redoing the brick and they didn't get it done in time for the festival. So it was a little strange to have a whole different set up this year. But still fun. The kids still got to perform in the parade with the marching band.
And they still had lots of fun booths and activities set up all around downtown. Kaya loved the pony rides. We still got to eat an elephant ear and funnel cake and the delicious tamales, tacos, and ribs that we always buy every year. And we even helped out for a bit at our church booth this year where we had a game that lured kids in to win prizes with the hope that we could then hand out some information to their parents. We gave away a lot of prizes but the parent's tended to keep their distance and we didn't give anything away to them. Though I think the missionaries did give away a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon to a couple of people.
We went to a few cross country meets this year. Spencer sometimes loved it and sometimes really hated it. But it was fun to watch him run. I think if he sticks with it, he could get really good. He just seems like he can run and run and never get tired.
Lynnsey came to hate cross country more and more. Her shin splints just continued to get worse and her coach continued to get more ornery about it. She did make some good friends, so at least there's that but I think she's pretty much decided that this would be her first and last experience with the sport.
Marching band also consumed a great deal of the kids time this fall. The did a great show and we were able to go to a few football games to see them play. One of them was held at Albion College which is always really nice. Because we were having unseasonable warm weather, the kids weren't allowed to wear their uniforms because of the risk of heat stroke! It's always more impressive with their uniforms but still they did a great job and it was really nice to not be freezing to death in the stands for once!
And speaking of unseasonable warm weather, the poor kids at Harrington Elementary were just roasting in their classrooms. We had a couple of half days of school scheduled and I got a text from Mandy (Téa and Mikel's mom) saying that if on one of the half days I wanted to take the kids to their backyard pool she would be totally fine with that. The problem was, that it was their dad's week to have them and he's sort of grumpy about me doing anything with the kids that involves anything to do with their mother. So at first I wasn't even going to do it. But then it was just SO hot and miserable and I decided why not. Mandy was at work and wouldn't even be home, the house was locked and we weren't going inside. It was literally just to use the pool. If I had taken them to the college pool, the kids dad probably would have praised me for going the extra mile. So we went. The kids had a marvelous time and it was so nice to escape the heat for a couple of hours.
And then I got in trouble. Mikel told his dad that they had gone swimming and he flew through the roof and let me know that I was never, ever to take his kids anywhere without his express permission. Which is really ridiculous because I've taken them to the playground and the kids museum and the library and the zoo plenty of times and he's been totally fine with hearing about it after the fact. He was just mad that I took them to their mom's house. I explained she wasn't there and we just used the pool and that was all, but now he has these huge trust issues and I literally can't take them anywhere anymore unless he says it's okay. This divorce business is definitely a headache sometimes! I had no idea it was going to have such an effect on my life and the way I had been doing this job with these kids for the past six years, but it has really become difficult this year and that's frustrating because up till now it has been a job that I've really enjoyed.
Anyway, it was a mostly good month with lots of changes and lots of positive things happening. Hopefully the rest of the school year will go well too. And if the unseasonable temps wanted to continue into winter, I wouldn't complain at all!
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