So Many Pictures of the Dog

Our dog is a big goofus. I find that I have lots of pictures of her because she is either doing some thing weird or cute. Here are a few from last week.

 

Rain

Something happens here in El Paso sometimes that I think is very pretty. The rain will come without a dark, cloudy sky. It's beautiful. Darby went out to dance in it. 

Earlier in the week we had a monsoon. Of course, the two youngest had to go and play in that as well. 

NAGA Again

 Jason went to another grappling torunament today. This time it was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He sent me this picture. First place in his division again! 

Also, two weeks ago he got his third stripe on his belt. Way to go Jason!

Lizard

This afternoon I heard Paige yell, "Hey Mom. There is a lizard in our house!" A lizard? I ran over to see. Sure enough, this cute little house gecko had made his way into the front room. We wanted to get him out before the dog noticed. 

Eva was able to shoo him into a cup and deposit him outside. However, did you know that geckos can let go of their tails if they feel threatened? I didn't. And Paige certainly didn't. And that's just what happened. The tail was still moving and she was freaked out! She kept trying to scoop it up with a piece of paper and throw it outside. 

 

Desk

Everyone had a desk in their room except Paige. She had always wanted to be in the center of the action and not up in her room anyway when doing her homework. Recently though, she has taken to doing art in her room. She realized that she had nowhere to do it so she asked Dad if he could make her a desk. They designed it, he built it and then painted it. Isn't it cute?

Then I went to HomeGoods to see if I could find a chair for her. There was one adorable pink chair that swiveled so I brought it home. She was ecstatic when she came home and saw the new addition to her room. She promptly got right to work doing some art. 

 

Juarez

 This is a snapshot into where we live. El Paso's two stakes are the only ones in all of the United States that have their assigned temple in another country. Our temple is in Juarez, Mexico. Military and government officers are not allowed to go, nor would anyone who isn't allowed across the border. In order to go you have to have a passport. I finally got mine. I haven't been yet because honestly I am scared to do so. I need to find someone to go with since I get lost easily and getting lost in another country would be the worst. Plus I am told they are doing construction on the roads near the temple and there are detours. I don't speak Spanish well enough to navigate that. 

Juarez is also not the safest city. It is filled with drug cartels. We got this text last week. Apparently there was a prison riot that erupted into gang violence throughout the city. Several deaths were reported. The temple was closed. Our stake keeps praying for a temple in El Paso. It would be so wonderful. 

Braces

This morning I took Paige to get her braces off. She was so excited. She wished it had happened before school started but one week in is not bad. 

It took a while and I could tell she was uncomfortable but she was bearing it well. Finally, they were off and she kept saying how weird it felt. She had to have a permanent retainer put in, and she didn't like that. I assured her that she would get used to it. 

Here is the before and after of one happy girl!

Classes

Here is what the kids thought of their first few days of school. 

Brendan emailed me on the first day to say that they had switched his schedule around. He still has the same classes but a few are now different periods and teachers. He thinks his piano teacher will be harder than last year's. He likes most of his classes and his psychology class is quickly becoming a favorite. He is also loving physics. He does not like his English class mainly because he says the teacher is loud and he thinks English is not concrete enough (don't even get him started onto unfairness of inference questions). He and Eva end the day at different campuses so I have two separate pick up spots after school. 

Eva says she likes all her classes but had a very frustrating experience on her second day. As you can see from the pic above, FHS has an A/B day schedule with half of the classes on each day. For B day, on her schedule it said that she had PE in "GYM". So she went to the main gym. When the teacher didn't call her name she asked if she was in the right class. It turns out that she wasn't. So she went to the magnet center gym. That took a while to find because it is not on the campus map. But that wasn't the right class either. So she went to find the auxiliary gym. By then no one else was out walking the halls so she, as a new freshman, had no idea how to get there. It also is not on the map as it is a separate building from main and magnet. Keep in mind that these buildings are far apart, take at least 5-7 minutes to walk to and she had done this twice now. In order to get to the aux gym you have to find an outside upstairs hallway that leads into the gym. Finally, she made it (about half an hour late to class). She said she wanted to cry. I sent an email to admin explaining what happened and suggesting that they label the gyms on the schedule as AUX, MAIN or MAGNET and also put them on the campus map. I hope that happens. She can't be the only freshman who had this issue. Poor thing. 

Darby had a great few days. She still loves choir and is in advanced choir now. She also has art again but with a different teacher and she's happy about that. She wasn't crazy about having to walk alone to and from school though. 

Paige is not in the same class as Cassidy this year and she is sad about that. She does know quite a few kids in the class though (some from church). She said she is having a little trouble making friends since everyone already seems to have one but she met a new girl that she thinks can be her in-class friend. She still sees Cassidy at recess and before/after school. She says orchestra is fun but kind of hard and the teacher is strict. She likes her two teachers but prefers her Language/Social Studies teacher the best (Mrs. McIntosh). 

First Day of School

It is the first day of school today. Summer seemed to go by so quickly. Brendan started his Junior year today. 

Eva started high school and seminary today.

Darby is the only middle schooler now.

Paige is in her last year of elementary and first year of orchestra. 

The oldest three got a ride to seminary/school (because Darby's backpack was so loaded down with first day School supplies). 

Jason and I walked Paige to school on her first day as a fifth grader. She did not even look back. They grow up so fast!

Seventeen

 

I can't believe my boy is 17! Poor guy had the misfortune of having his birthday on the first day of school. His seminary teachers knew this and gave him a special present - one of his favorite foods. They called to ask me what candy he would want and I said he actually would rather have these crackers. They sang Happy Birthday to him and his teacher, Sister Ross, even brought the Grooves to our house afterwards because Brendan asked her to (so he wouldn't have to carry them around all day). He is also in the same seminary class as most of his D&D buddies so the morning went great.

He chose Toro Burger for his birthday dinner and it was yummy.

Then we went home for presents and cake.  Darby made him a card that was perfectly Brendan and the other kids found it funny too. 

We got him a new D&D book along with a container of monster figures. 

I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and let him look through my recipes. He asked for a peanut butter chocolate eclair cake and I made one for him. He said he wants that cake for his birthday every year now. 

After cake we watched the next installment of Lord of the Rings. We started it this weekend and will watch some each evening until complete. That is everything he wanted for his birthday. 

Happiest of birthdays to the boy that made me a mom!