A Future Chemist

At Back to School Night we sat at Brendan's desk. I saw that he wrote his name on his name tag like this:

With symbols from the periodic table and a pronounciation guide. 

We laughed out loud. His teacher liked it too.

Sneaky

Paige is sneaky. And often hungry. Here's some evidence from just the past three weeks.

Paige told me she had a cheese stick. That was okay with me until I went to put some things away and found this. She had opened a new package of cheese sticks, hidden in the closet and eaten all but one. That's a lot of cheese. A door knob cover was put on all large closet doors.

I caught Paige hiding behind the living room chair with a chocolate covered face and an empty bag of mini candy bars. A doorknob cover is now on the pantry door.

When I made bread because the missionaries were coming over for dinner I laid it on the counter to cool. I thought I had put it far enough back as to be out of reach. Guess I was wrong.

Sigh. That girl!!

Paige and the sisters

We had the sister missionaries over to our house for dinner tonight. When they came in the house and met Paige she took an immediate shine to them. She talked and talked with them, introducing each member of the family to them, telling stories (mostly imaginary) and singing for them. After dinner they wanted to teach us a short lesson. We moved into the family room. Paige brought them a pillow. Then she left and returned with a blanket, which she handed one sister. Then she sat on her lap and told her to lay down and snuggle. I guess she feels very comfortable with missionaries.

Another funny event from tonight - Paige wanted to read a book to the sisters. She chose a lift-the-flap book called The Body Book. She turned to the digestive system and moved to lift the flap for the, shall we say, END of the digestive system. Luckily I saw what was going on and was able to intercede before she told them all about poop. That girl!

Literature

Jason here.

It may not come as much of a surprise, but I love to read. As long as I can remember I have loved books, I imagine I get that from my mom. Looking back through the years my first love was science fiction and fantasy books. I still love them, though I am more inclined to biography and history these days when I am not studying root canals for boards or something which is not very often these past few years.

In all the phases of my life, from being a lonely kid bouncing around from place to place to my wild teenage skateboarding years, coming of age in the 101st Pathfinders, mission, and then family years my reading has always been a passion. And through it all one author has consistently been a part of my life, telling stories and explaining things that resonated deeply to me - Orson Scott Card.

I read and re-read Ender's Game when I was young, and read anything else I could get my hands on by Card. Later as I became active in the gospel I was pleasantly surprised to find some essays on gospel living that were customarily insightful and inspiring. For instance, Card's essays on the meaning of the family and marriage have won him an avalanche of criticism, but they are the best thing I have read on the topic. Nowadays I subscribe to sort of newsletter where he reviews mundane things like the choreography of Dancing With The Stars and movies and dark chocolate. They come every so often and they are interesting and funny and I like it. This may sound a bit weird, but I feel like I know the guy, that we are friends in a sense, or could be if the circumstances were right.

I have an Audible account (fantastic by the way!) and every month you get a free book. I have listened to a couple biographies the past few months, Churchill, Washington, and MacAurthur and felt a desire for fiction. So I picked a book by Card I had not read, Lost Boys, and started listening.

It turns out this book is somewhat autobiographical which is kind of ironic now that I think about it. I won't write any spoilers, but the suspense story is weaved around a fictional portrayal of Card and his young family. There were so many parallels between the characters that I felt a deep personal connection. For instance, the oldest child is a boy who struggles to make friends at school and is totally truthful. The father in the story writes how much he disliked the administrative callings in the church such as being the elders quorum president and much preferred gospel doctrine. The mother excels at callings and is amazing, but worries endlessly about her children. While I realize that these are probably quite common, these were spot on for me. And this story took place after a family move from the west to North Carolina.

Anyways, there were just so many things about this story that I identified with on personal levels that I just took these characters into my heart. The story is heartbreakingly sad, so much so that days after reading it just thinking about it makes me emotional. Don't judge until you read the story, and then you will see what I mean. I don't want to spoil the story, but the family experiences loss. Card says in the prologue that this book is so personal that he cannot read it, that writing it was hard enough, and that he will never write another book that involves his family or the loss of a child.

I am not sure why exactly I felt the need to write this. Maybe because I hope that later when the children read this they will know a little bit more about what I liked to read, or what I found inspiring. Maybe they will decide to read that book and we can bond in retrospect because the moment after I finished that book I went into their rooms and gave them a kiss and then I got on my knees and thanked Heavenly Father for them with tears of love in my eyes. Something along those lines.

First Week of School

A few people have asked for a follow up to the previous post about the first day of school. There were a few hiccups but nothing major. In fact, I think things have gone rather well and I am no longer worried.  The bus was super late the first day, both getting the kids and taking them home. They arrived home at 5pm. Brendan was especially not crazy about that. Darby thinks the bus is exciting however. As the week wore on, the bus came more on time and all three kids no longer mind taking it now. The kids at the bus stop are great and the kids ask to go out  to wait for the bus way before we need to.

There were minor homework hiccups too. The kids are having a hard time getting into the routine of school. I am hoping that next week will be better. There hasn't been much homework but communication from the school has been extensive (LOTS of notices and paperwork) but not necessarily answering questions I have. Open House is next week so I am thinking that it will all be brought to light then. Darby left her lunch box at school two days last week. I can see that I will need to remind her. She is having trouble with the concept of homework too (she has to remember to have me sign her folder saying that I got the notices sent home, that's it so far).

So far, I have been very impressed with the kids teachers. Eva's teacher is a veteran teacher and is very on-the-ball. I like her already. Darby's teacher is a novice teacher but sweet and Darby likes her. Really, Darby is an easy student and I think she will be fine. Brendan's teacher has a certificate in Special Education as well as General Education. There is also an aide and a Sp Ed teacher who is shared with another class. I am so pleased at the amount of support he has. I have also gotten notices from the Gifted Teacher (he will start that program soon) and the Speech Pathologist (which is part of his IEP). I like that they are on-the-ball too. He comes home fairly happy every day. Time will tell.

So far so good with school year 2015-2016.

Life in the D

We live along the bend of a road that loops around. The road our house sits on is a small one that dissects the end of the loop, forming a sort of "D" shape with a grassy area in the middle. It is in the housing area that is farthest south and surrounded by water on three sides. As a result, no one comes down here except those who live here. Traffic is minimal and the neighbors are friendly. The D also has get-togethers frequently and this weekend was a Smores Night.

I had been looking forward to it all week. I have been really impressed with the neighbors I have met and was anxious to hang out with them and meet more. It was a great night. The kids enjoyed themselves, particularly Brendan. He found a group of boys chasing each other around with light sabers and we didn't see him for nearly 2 hours. We ended up staying out until 9:30 chatting with our neighbors. Its going to be a great place to live. I thank the Lord for watching out for us and leading us here.

View over the Potomac

I love Virginia. 

Birthday

Jason turned 36 this year. All he wanted was Reubens, apple pie a la mode and a walk in the woods. We accomplished all that.

Oh, and my presents to him were a big hit too - a jig set and a Nerf gun with target.

Happy birthday Daddy Jason!!

And They're Off . . .

Today was the first day of school for my three oldest. Darby is starting kindergarten, Eva is going into 2nd and Brendan is a 4th grader. I am super nervous about this year as we are in an entirely new area/school/setting. Not to mention that the kids are riding the bus for the first time. The school is on post and HUGE. Lots of resources available but also lots of students for my kids to get lost amongst. Like I said, I am worrying about this.

School here on post starts at 9:20am, much later than Honeycutt did, and the kids won't be home until close to 4:30. That will be an adjustment. We are also very out of practice for a morning routine due to our crazy summer. I have hopes that we can slide quickly back in though. Brendan had a rough morning at home, mainly because I think he was a bundle of nerves. I kept hoping that he would snap out of it before the bus came.

We headed out to the bus stop early since I was not sure how it would all play out. We live in a a circle-type street with a grassy area in the middle. That was where all the kids and parents were gathered. We have great neighbors and everyone just sat around chatting. Darby found two other kindergarten girls at our stop and they played until the bus came. Eva has a friend from church that she sat and talked with, and Brenda found a friend too (a boy named Henrik who is in our ward - they noticed that they had matching watches and started up a conversation).

The bus was super late (9:15am) but I figured that the first day would  be like this. This bus only has two stops in our neighborhood before it is full. I will have to ask the kiddos when they get home how full it was. I saw them sit down and I waved goodbye until they drove away. It was both freeing and nerve-wracking. I can't wait to hear how the first day went.

Priorities

This morning the girls woke up Jason with handmade birthday cards.

Eva and Darby: Happy Birthday Dad!! (Cue the hugs and kisses)

Then Brendan shouts from down the hallway: Its Labor Day!!

We cracked up!

Renaissance Festival

Jason here.

A colleague at work recommended the  Maryland Renaissance Festival. We haven't been to one in years, since Arizona, and we decided to go. 

It was really well done and I had the distinct impression that a more effective way to get people to spend their money has yet to be thought of. Everywhere we looked there was cool stuff to buy or amazing food to sample. The first stop was a pretty confusing little play to follow, at least for the little ones.

 Then we walked around and checked out the shops, participated in maypole dance which was cool and then watched an acrobat.

There were magicians and sword-swallowers and gigantic turkey legs.

I threw ninja stars in one booth.

Brendan loved this cool little game shop. He used part of his money to play an old style board game with the shop keeper. It was the highlight of the trip for him. He liked the giant maze too.

 

 

 The girls all insisted on spending their money on bubble wands.

And there was a jousting tournament of course, which was cool.

All in all it was a fantastic time for the family and I am glad we went. The traffic wasn't all that bad either, which was a plus.