Here's sort of the newsletter/journal entry version of happenings:
(I apologize in advance that it's fairly wordy, a bit scrambled and less visual.)
It's been SEP's (Parent Teacher conferences) here recently. This means busy time for me in PTA as I have the official title of Teacher Appreciation Coordinator. We did dinner for the teachers both Wed and Thurs nights. My awesome friend Gina (who is PTA president on the High School level) suggested getting 6 foot subs from Wal-Mart. And for $84 dollars for 18 feet of sandwiches (enough to feet 90 people) how could we say no?! They were great! Here's the math, that's $28 for one 6 foot sub and costing less than $1.00 per sandwich serving! The deli also provided a bottle of mustard and mayo for each 6ft sub and put the tomatoes and onions on the side! Plus it was really fun picking them up! Everyone was oohing and ahhing over my grocery cart full of sandwich! (In 3ft sections)
On Sub sandwich day other PTA members donated sides. (Me with a delicious pumpkin spice cake w/ cream cheese frosting)
Then the next day we ordered some bread twists from Pizza Factory (always a favorite) and we had some members bring in crock pots of soup. (I did my wild rice w/ chicken and mushroom) And there were still leftovers from the day before. So, from what I've heard, the teachers loved it and felt appreciated and had plenty of dinner each night. Big, happy pat on my back for organizing that. :)
The night of NQ's SEP we had happy gushing teachers who adore our 1st grader! I was so pleased! His home teacher, Mrs. Gonzalez, taught Kindergarten last year and knew NQ already. She told me she felt that he'd really grown up over the summer, after observing him in class. Nathan smiled and glowed from the praise. And, really, so did I. Since he's only been in school for two weeks, they have yet to organize kids into groups of like-level skilled kids, but both of his teachers were sure that he was one of those kids who'd be in the top 10% of progressed kids. Always makes you feel good to hear that your kid is impressing the teachers, you know? Especially after a few spots of acting out last year.
His Spanish classes this year will be INTENSE! His Spanish teacher even speaks to the parents in Spanish - so there is a LOT of gesturing and pointing on both our parts. Um, I'm going to have to crack the books.
Meanwhile we've been organizing our trip for LEGOLAND coming up in September. We booked it several weeks ago - and later found out that the theme park and water park would be closed for TWO of the Four days we were planning on being there. This put a huge amount of unpleasant feelings in my heart! Why, oh why would we book our stay at the LEGOLAND hotel if the park wasn't even going to be open while we were there?! So - the next day, after seeing this upsetting news (There was a new post on their Facebook page indicating the new hours of operations after Sept 2nd) I called the reservation people and them know of my dissatisfaction that this hadn't been brought to my attention at the time of my booking and that our budget could not allow for the weekend rates of the hotel. After 40 minutes or so with my delightfully helpful rep, Jessica, we got weekend rooms for weekday rates and will still be going to LEGOLAND, and the park and water park will be open! (Though I was fully prepared to cancel our trip and have heartsick kids.)
Kids -
Ashton was watching a movie where one of the characters is a zebra - and finds a heard of zebras for the 1st time. "That's a LOT of Marty's! A Bunch."
He's also profoundly explained, "Lightning doesn't make sound, but Thunder is really loud!"
Ashton helped me shop at Wal-Mart, he walked for nearly two hours as we scoured many isles. But he was a great helper and picked many favorite items and joyfully threw them into the cart. (Smashing a few of the more delicate items.)
He's also been wanting 'cold' foods. He wants a cold dog, not a hot dog. And he prefers cold nuggets - which can be tricky. So, if his food needs warming, it needs to be done about 20 minutes in advance.
Nathan has been doing his reading every night. He's given me a Green Eggs and Ham, and several Piggie and Gerald performances. His spelling words are going well, and he continues to do well with his math.
He's so observant when he reads. He looks at each of the characters facial expressions and also gives me his surmise of what their feelings are on each and every page. Sometimes it can take a while to get through a book. But he's so happy to be reading, I encourage his exploration!
I ADORE his little gummy smile! I laugh at the sight of it everyday! He has his big teeth growing in, but for now, his little hillbilly no-front-teeth smile of his cracks me up!
Nathan has been taking over my phone to play a 'minion' game. This is fantastic leverage to use when I want him to get his chores done!
There's been lots of thunderstorms and a little rain here - enough to cool things off for a day or two, then the temps climb back up and then it's HOT and HUMID!
Shane -
My Uncle Ed had this older Nissan car that the kids (my cousins) used in high school. It's sort of a beat up old thing that didn't pass inspection and has plenty of little quirks and problems. He had Shane look it over, and certainly, it's a project. Well, that project now lives in my driveway. And my husband has been ever SO HAPPY with this project!! Anytime he has a bit of time in his schedule he's working on that car!! He's replaced this and fixed up that and tuned up this and torn out and cleaned up that and many times I've seen twisted greasy bits of metal all about the garage. But my man is SO happy with his little free project car!! It's even had some pressure washing and waxing and carpet shampooing!! So a huge THANK YOU to Uncle Ed and Aunt Mindy and this bright spot in the life of my husband. Shane comes to tell me about his doing this and that and, rarely I understand what the heck he's saying, but he says it with gusto and satisfaction to I give him a cheery thumbs up, and he'll disappear again into the nether regions of the driveway.
Callings -
For activity day girls this last week we did a little lesson on Modesty. My activity day partner (and neighbor) pulled pages out of magazines and the girls and grown-ups used markers and remade the outfits of the celebrities that were not modeling very modest get-ups. This was most of people on the pages. Oprah and Gwyneth Paltrow were fairly conservative. The girls loved it.
Shane taught priesthood today, and reports that it went well, but that it was good that he'd pulled another talk on the topic, because the one he'd been furnished with took about 10 minutes to get through.
Other -
Shane and I went to the Mortal Instruments movie last night. (Never is as good as the book, but I was pleasantly surprise by the leads.) The boys LOVE having a sitter. Ashton enthusiastically pointed his finger at the sitter and Nathan asked, "Can you guys go somewhere every night so she can come play with us?" Glad we have reliable girls in the neighborhood!
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