More Changes in the Wind

Michael has been with St. Luke's for nearly twelve years now. He has gone through many changes of job title and changes of department. He has loved each shift and we are thankful for all the good that has come our way. One of the only parts of his job that has stayed the same is his annual trip to Sun Valley to serve as tech support for a medical conference. This is his tenth year supporting the conference. The first year we brought all the kids with us (Sam was only a couple months old), but since then just Michael and I have gone.

He has worked and I have been able to just take a break from being mom. We've eaten tons of wonderful food, taken hikes, and enjoyed just being a couple. It has been a wonderful weekend and the conference organizers frequently tell me how much they rely on Michael. Unfortunately, this is likely going to be Michael's last year supporting the conference. His latest job shift has made his job much more about photography and videoography. Doing tech support no longer falls under his job description.

We will be sad to see this weekend go. Michael enjoys hosting it, but I think he also enjoys giving me a weekend were I can just relax and enjoy the beauty that is here. We have enjoyed our years up here and we made sure to enjoy this weekend as well. 

We even managed to play some pool and air hockey. I crushed him at pool but he destroyed me at air hockey, so I guess we are even.

I will miss our Sun Valley weekend, but now that the kids are older and less needy, I don't need it as much. I'm so thankful that we have got to do this for the last ten years. I'm excited to see what the coming years bring.

All My Free Time

With all the kids in public school, I've been worried about how I would fill all my free time. Between sick kids, weird days off and watching this guy several times a week, I've been just as busy as ever. The first three weeks of school I still had someone at home almost every day. Now that the school schedule has settled and kids have gotten healthier, I did get a few days off. 

For several days I just fixed things. Little things that have broken over the years and no one had the time to fix.  Things like replacing the toilet paper holder that has been prone to falling off the wall for the last couple years.

I've worked in the garden, helped install a new peep hole, fixed a broken wheel on our bench and helped Michael fix the broken wheel on the computer chair.  I've set about poisoning my neighbor's trees that refuse to die. And yes, I have her permission; I haven't gone completely loopy. I installed a doorbell. I'm going to replace some bathroom fixtures. Basically, I have been fixing all those little things that I could never concentrate enough to fix before.

The few days I've had with no kids or husband around I have enjoyed the feeling of having a complete thought process, such as: I need to fix this toilet paper holder. I'm going to check if Amazon has one. Now I am ordering one. This is a process that has taken me days to work through, but without a person interrupting, it takes ten minutes. When Amazon delivered it, it took me 45 minutes (I'm being generous) to find the correct tools and install it without having to referee a fight or have someone asking to picked up from wherever they are. It's been amazing. I don't think I've had a complete thought process in the last fifteen years!

I still have a few items on my to-do list, but I can't fix everything at once. We still need money for food and housing! Amid all this fixing chaos, I've come the realization that we may not be able to afford for me to stay home. I'm eyeing new flooring for the patio, new paint for a couple rooms, new paint for the kitchen chairs; I just keep adding to the master list. There are so many projects that I keep finding that I might just bankrupt us.

So in the interest of earning a bit more money and curtail my home improvement projects a bit, I also signed up to be a substitute teacher. I finished the training and my fingerprints are cleared. I'm hoping to be able to start next week. The girls have begged me to never sub for their classes. The boys couldn't care less if I teach them; at least some of my kids love me.

With my free time I even took a quick girls' trip to Baker City with my friend. We posed with every animal sculpture we found. I love these things. I want some smaller scales ones for the front flower bed (me staying home without kids to chase gives me much too much time to start projects that then cost money).

I'm enjoying having moments to myself with all the kids in school. Grace and Sam are enjoying public school, although Sam still has some doubts. He is asking to come home because school is so long. He loves his friends though and has discovered playing Pokemon with friends. I think he will survive. I think we all will. This is going to be a great new chapter for all us.

Libby's Birthday

Libby is even more firmly ensconced in the teen years with the arrival of her 14th birthday. She no longer requests toys. She wants jewelry, face masks,

and room decor.

That's a rug in the bag. It's a fuzzy gray and white pattern to complement the girls' room. Matching accessories are very important to her.

She stills loves turtles.

She is the master of the eye roll. Her eyes are going to get stuck in her cranium from all the gymnastics they are asked to perform.

Her Aunt Kristal had to buy this shirt for Libby. It reads "I'm just a big freakin' ray of sunshine." I couldn't think of a more apropos shirt.

She got a lot of cash! Her aunts and uncles have decided it's easier to let her buy her own presents. She's been nagging me to take her to the store so she can buy *more* shoes and a comforter that better matches her room scheme.

In keeping with her sibling's cake requests this year, Libby found a complicated creation and asked me to recreate it. I think it looks pretty good. But even though I love me some baked goods and chocolate, this cake was a little much to eat. Libby didn't complain though. Thankfully we had a lot of family to share it with.

She had a great birthday and we are thankful to call her ours.

Fair Time

Ethan only entered two photos in the fair this year. One is of a plant cell and the other is downtown Boise. I thought they were both pretty great pictures. The fair judge didn't seem to agree. Ethan didn't place with the plant cell and received fourth for the cityscape. Although he didn't get very good placement, he is still happy with his photos and has spent a lot of time with photography lately.

Libby entered a few more than the two Ethan submitted. She placed 2nd with her tree watercolor painting, and first with her ladybug sculpture. For her baking she earned 1st for gluten free cookies, 2nd for brownies, and 3rd for a cake made with Amalgmated sugar. They even gave her a prize basket! A prize basket of different types of sugar. Even though it is straight sugar, she has hidden it away in her room and is threatening to eat it by the spoonful. Amalgamated sugar is secretly plotting to give all the fair participants diabetes.

Grace entered roughly a billion things in the fair this year.  Three photos, two pieces of art, a Sculpey figure, brownies, cookies, and 

decorated cookies. As you can see from the pictures, she got more than a handful of ribbons. This does not include her baking ribbons.  She was especially proud of these cookies she decorated using fondant. She tried them a few years back, and they were a disaster. She made her art pallet cookies again, and was pleased with the result. The judge seemed to agree. The cookies still look pretty good, even though I took this picture after they had been sitting out at the fair for the last ten days.

Sam only entered a few things this year. He was very distraught he didn't get nearly as much cash prizes as his sisters, but that's what happens when you only enter a few things. He did get a third place ribbon for his tiny turtle Sculpey figure.

He also got a couple prizes for his picture of Harley and his pattern picture. The kids might owe Harley some dog treats for being such a patient model.

It was hectic getting fair entries ready this year. I missed the early entry deadline by a few hours, we forgot to print the pictures until the last minute (again), and school was starting the next week. It all created a lot of chaos, but I think everyone is glad that we persisted.

All of Them!

This year all of my children are attending public school. One morning, way too early in the morning, and way too early in August, all of my kids prepared to step out the door for a whole new school year, leaving me all alone.

Ethan started his adventure of attending Borah High, where uniforms are no longer required!! It took him only three times as long to get dressed, because choosing clothes is hard.

Libby in still at the Junior High, but as this is her 9th grade year, she is technically in high school.  Boise school districts are a little wonky that way. She is still stuck with a uniform.

Both the big kids have to leave the house by 6:10 to get to early morning seminary and a zero hour class. Right now they are biking. I'm not looking forward to driving them this winter when it gets cold. I'm still trying to convince Michael we need an el cheapo car for them to drive to school. At some point they will realize that I'm only one cat away from a crazy cat lady, if as last year, I keep driving them to school while wearing flip flops and Michael's bathrobe. If Ethan can drive them, then we can side step the entire issue of my sanity.

Grace was able to get up at a more reasonable time, and I had time to take the rags out of her hair she asked me to put in the evening before. The curls were flattened by the end of the day but she sure started out adorable.

I offered to take Grace and Sam to their first day of elementary school, as there was a teacher meet and greet before the bell rang. They both flatly refused and insisted on riding the bus. Sam did ask me to meet him at the school to meet his teacher. Grace threatened to ignore me if I even said hi to her.

None of my kids were happy to take pictures first thing. I wanted to commemorate this excellent event. They made strange faces. It's about what I expected.

I thought I would have loads of free time once we reached this milestone, but I've got this monkey to keep me busy three days a week. 

I'm still debating what I will do with my wonderful two child free days a week. Probably conquer the world.