Killing Time

Jason was stuck at work and couldn't get back to take Brendan to Young Mens. So I had to take him. To kill time we went to the nearby library. The children's area was nice (not as nice as the Western Regional Branch though). Paige put on a puppet show but I kept having to tell her to quiet down. Eva picked a book and read. Darby did both of these things. It was a pleasant way to spend an hour. 

First Day of School

The first day of middle school was today. I was SO nervous!! Brendan had to wake up around 6:30. He needed to leave about 40 minutes before his sisters so they won't see him most mornings. He caught the bus on time and set out for a whole new start.

The girls' bus was supposed to come around 8:35am.  They got ready and we took some pictures. This is the last time they will all be in the same school.

I went out to the bus stop with them, which is only 4 houses down. It was late (to be expected on the first day). Can you tell who was excited and who was nervous? Paige charged right on the bus, ready to meet the challenge, and Darby and Eva lingered back, waving to me and looking scared. 

This is what the dogs did all day in a quiet house.

At 3:00, I went out to meet Brendan at the bus. It came earlier than I had expected and so I ended up meeting him in the driveway. He was smiling. He really liked school today. And he was even more excited that he had no homework but that I had tons (papers to fill out). He laughed about that. 

The girls' bus was super late. They were all hot and sweaty by the time they got home, having waited outside at the school for a while.  They are glad to be home but I had good reports from each. Stella was super excited to have them home as well.

Last Days of Summer

Summer is coming to an end. The days of fort building, hanging out in our pajamas, board games, iPad games, finishing books for the summer reading program and playing with Dad all day are coming to a close. 

Darby mananged to complete all the states in Stack the States this summer. She has a firm grasp on US geography now.

On our last Saturday we went out to the lake again, this time to swim. We also had s'mores over the firepit.

I love these goofballs.

Family Portrait by Paige

For her "Me" bag assigned for the first day of school, Paige drew a picture of the family. I love how Jason and I are "dancing", Brendan is the tallest and Paige is the biggest. I wonder what one can decipher from a first-grade drawing.

Braces Off

Jason works with a peditaric dentist who said he would take off Eva's braces. We would need to find an orthodontist for her retainer but still, that meant we could get her braces off before school started again. She was very excited. After a hard time finding the office on post (Fort Bragg streets are hard to navigate and buildings are not well marked), we made it. We hurried in and filled out the paperwork. It was nice to hear from the front desk that they loved working with Jason. I got Eva settled and then took Paige to Jason's office. We waited in there with an iPad until Eva was done.
Here she is with slick teeth!

Open House

Today was Open House for all four of the kids. Honeycutt Elementary was first. We brought all their school supplies to turn in and met their teachers. Paige is in Mrs. Wonderly's class. She seems nice but softspoken. I wonder if she will be charismatic enough for Paige.

Darby is in Mrs. Dingwell's class. I could tell by her classroom and her presence that she is a fun but organized and challenging teacher. I think this will be a good year for Darby. I haven't been overly impressed with her teachers in the past. 

Eva is in the AIG cluster class. Her homeroom teacher is Mrs. Potwin. She has an English accent and her room is decorated in Star Wars. I could tell instantly that I liked her. She also has a separate teacher for Social Studies and ELA named Mrs. Thompkins. 

Then we went to John Griffin Middle School. This would take more time. We started by walking Brendan to each class and making sure he knew the way. I also had a short letter explaining his needs for each teacher in case they hadn't read the IEP yet. First we went to see his homeroom teacher, Ms Newman, who is also his ELA teacher. She had a short presentation for parents which was very helpful. She also showed me the rotating class schedule. 

All of his cluster classes except math are in the same hallway and he is in the AIG program as well. Next he has PE so we made it into the gym, met the teacher and we had to buy his PE uniform as well. Then we went to computers, science, social studies and then finally, Algebra I in the eighth grade hallway (all other classes are in the seventh grade wing). I hope he can remember how to get places in the big school. His math teacher, Mr. White, and Ms. Newman seems particularly amazing. I am tentatively optimistic about this year. Lastly, we got in line to buy his lock for a locker. All that took almost 2 hours. Phew!

"Fun" side note: We had to take Paige because she's not old enough to be home by herself. She didn't make it to the potty in time and so I had to send Jason to the car for a clothes change. Sigh. But bonus  Mommy points for having a clothes change ready. 

Silly Dog

Stella is such a funny dog. She loves to sleep upside down on the couch.

She wants to be where the kids are.

She gets tons of love.

 Sometimes Stella will go outside just to bask in the sun.

She perches in weird places.

And she is very patient with the kids. Paige likes to use her for a pillow.

Castle Panic

I bought this new cooperative game after reading the reviews. It is called Castle Panic. It takes a while to play and is a bit complex but is really fun and challenging. The first time we played, we won! Brendan especially loves it. He even created his own extra "achievements" to go along with the game.  

You are supposed to end the game, after an onslaught of attacks from magical creatures, with at least one tower standing. We even bought an extension pack called Wizard's tower. You can see that this game was pretty close.

Its Coming Together

Home decorating is coming together. I have almost everything hung on the walls that is going on the walls.

I really like the gallery wall I made in the hallway. 

I also like the styling of the console table. You can see some of it in this picture, right by the silly goose who though the bannister was "comfy". 

The Cursed Fridge

I opened the fridge on Tuesday night and it seemed a bit warm. When I checked the temperature it was at 55 degrees. We kept it closed overnight and I checked again, thnking maybe the drop in temp was that a child left it cracked open part of the day. Nope. In the morning it was still in the 50's, and it climbed slowly every time we opened it.

It is the fridge that was left with the house and I have never really liked it. It is pretty - stainless tell and a bottom freezer drawer - but the bottom drawer always sticks and the condenser leaks so that there is ice build up on the back wall. When the ice builds up there is a loud screeching sound coming from the fridge and twice now I have had to use a hair dryer to defrost it. I knew we'd eventually need a new fridge. This final problem was just the nail in its coffin.

So I spent a day or two researching fridges and we used Jason's office mini-fridge aas our main way of keeping a little food cold. After the AC and the car, we certainly didn't need another expense, but one has to have a fridge! I sent Jason ideas of what I wanted and he made a trip to Lowe's on his way hoem from work. They didn't have the one I wanted except a floor model. Luckily they were willing to sell the floor model at a discount. It has a scratch on one side but you can't even see that due to where the fridge sits in our kitchen. Score! I am so grateful to have a refrigerator again!

Beach Trip

Today was the day we went to meet the Raoelinas at Camp LeJeune (Onslow Beach) for some fun at the beach. They had rented a beach house the whole week and so we met them there. It was a nice beach house with plenty of room. We decided we needed to rent one next year. 

It was SO good to see our friends! We got to chatting just like we had never left Belvoir. After a time we got ready for the beach and walked over. It was a cloudy day and not too hot so there weren't a lot of people out. That was just fine with us. 

We enjoyed playing in the waves and being with our friends. The girls loved having Jenny and Marcy to play with.

 Jason and I spent a good amount time chatting with Sandy, Yves and the older kids.  I miss my Young Women buddies. 

The Raoelinas brought a boogie board and most of my kids liked riding them. Darby was pretty good at it. 

Brendan got tossed while he was riding one with Jason and so he took it out in an outburst at his dad. I had to go talk to him and made him go cool off.  He decided he wanted to build a sand castle instead of be in the water anymore. Brendan eventually apologized to hsi dad and Jason offered to help him build. 

Eva and Marcy went looking for shells. There was a group out there looking for shark teeth. They told the kids how to identify them. It was pretty cool to see some of the fossilized ones they had found.

Paige charmed a water bottle out of some other beach goers. Sigh. That girl!

I didnt realize until afterwards that I had caught on camera Daddy dumping water over Paige's head. I dont know if she asked him to or if he was messing with her. She didn't seem to mind. 

Nothing quite like a military beach. 

After a few hours a storm started to roll in and we went back to the beach house. 

We showered and dressed and got the china from them. It was packed with such care. I felt very loved that they would take such good care of it for me. Then we decided where to go for dinner. We told them that they HAD to try Cookout so that is where we went. We said goodbye after dinner. It was sad to say farewell. Perhaps we can do a joint beach trip again. Regardless, I hope to hear from them soon about Richard's mission call.