Goodbye 2010

As the year draws to a close tonight, I'd have to say that I said a lot of good-byes in 2010. Saying good-bye is hard to do most of the time. The hardest good-bye this year was obviously saying good-bye to my dad. Luckily it's not a final good-bye. I will see him again someday but it could be quite a few years. I miss him so much and it doesn't seem possible he's been gone almost six months already.

I also said goodbye to my 30's just three days ago. I'm not quite sure where the last decade went but I'm looking forward to a new one. A lot of my friends that are already 40 or older have said they're better then the 30's so that's something to look forward to now. My family and friends had a surprise party for me at my mom's condo the night of my birthday. I was so surprised! Bruce had taken me to Texas Roadhouse for supper and we were going to pick up the kids and have ice cream cake-I didn't expect a party! It was fun and it really made my day. My brother and nephew were there too so that was extra special-they had been here for Christmas and stayed until the day after my birthday even though Kelly had to fly back the day before to work.

Now we are getting ready to go say goodbye to 2010 with our friends the Weavers. Here's wishing you all a Happy 2011!

It's that time of year

It's almost Christmas. The kids tell me how many days it is every morning. They are super excited but this year I feel like I'm just going through the motions. I haven't wrapped a single gift yet (except the teacher gifts, etc. are done with help from Aleah) and we aren't done shopping-hopefully we'll finish up tomorrow night. We've done some baking and I do have the cards sent out but there's still a lot to do.

Normally I would be beyond stressed but this year I know that what has to get done will get done and that's all that really matters. This Christmas season I'm just missing my dad's presence. It's not that my dad really did anything special at Christmas but I'm just going to miss having him around. It just feels like something is missing.

Before the kids' Christmas program at church on Sunday, we had supper at my mom's condo and Bruce's parents were there. I missed that my kids didn't have all their grandparents there. I am grateful that all my kids have had all their grandparents and even two great grandmas until quite recently. My kids all have memories of their Grandpa Jorgensen but my nephew Luke won't. It was nice that my dad got to see Luke a few times though.

Blogging

I think about blogging a lot. I do enjoy it but there always seems like other things I should be doing. I felt like I was gone all day today-I pretty much was. Shopping, Girl Scouts, driving kids here and there, etc. It doesn't feel like I got much done but laundry-but that's important too.

I have to say I'm loving our new washer and dryer. I can get a whole load washed and dried in an hour and a half. With our old ones it sometimes would take over an hour and a half to just dry them and it wouldn't spin the clothes dry anymore-we had to manually turn it to spin or catch it at the right time and just open the lid. I've kept up with laundry this week even though I subbed everyday. Yay, me!

Tomorrow after church I plan on baking, working on getting the Christmas letters ready to go in the mail, and finishing up some crafts. I think Donovan and Samantha are going to go help my mom make some sundbakkles-a Norwegian type of sugar cookie. I'm going to make peanut butter balls for my cookie exchange with my book club on Wednesday.

I need to finish Christmas shopping soon-maybe next weekend. I think we know what we want to get but haven't had time to get stuff.

I really do like being extra busy right now. It helps me not think about how much I miss my dad. I am glad we didn't know last year that it was our last Christmas together. I think that we wouldn't have enjoyed it like we did if we knew that it was our last. It would have seemed sad. We had a really nice time last Christmas and we celebrated mom and dad's 40th anniversary too.

Tired Out

Just getting ready to go over to the mother-in-law's condo here in Bismarck for a sort of Thanksgiving supper. On Thursday we had her over to our house for a meal and on Friday we drove to Strasburg for a Thanksgiving meal with my family. Last night Nancy's brother drove to Bismarck from Wisconsin, so tonight we are having yet another Thanksgiving meal. I'm not complaining - it is just that I should probably fast for a week!

A couple of weeks ago we got new tires put on our minivan. Our previous tires, Michelin HydroEdge, were all right but were absolutely horrible in snow and ice. Any stop on a slippery surface in winter meant a difficult start. Put us on an incline and we were pretty much toast as far as getting going again. I was reminded of that a couple of days ago when I came upon a vehicle stuck in a railroad underpass. This car was not going to be going anywhere unless it could back up and take a run at it. Just a few weeks ago that would have been us.

The new tires as pictured above are the Nokian eNTYRE. Nokian is a Finland company known for their snow tires, and the eNTYRE is a relatively new venture for them into the all-season tire market. It really is a night and day difference in winter performance between these two tires. I highly recommend the eNTYRE. Normally, for our 17" wheels this tire retails for about $145 each but we were able to get them for $112, which is less than what we paid for the Michelins four years ago.

Above is a closer look at the tread. It is a directional tire, but so were the HydroEdge. I also just got new tires for my company car. For that I went with Hankook Optimo H727. These are good tires and are highly rated by Consumer Reports. The eNTYRE was too new to have been tested by CR. I've noticed both tires have less road noise than their predecessors.

I Should Blog

If I had a dollar for every time this year I told Nancy that I should blog...well, I'd probably have about twenty dollars now! By the way, I wonder if today's dictionaries contain the word "blog" as a verb? I bet they do. My dictionary from college surely does not have that word. Heck, in my college years of 1985-1989 the internet was just a gleam in Al Gore's eyes!

My last blog post was on April 10. That is sort of hard to believe. The least I could have done was post a few videos, right? Ha. Previous to that last post I had only put up about ten other posts in 2010.

So what happened? Why no blogging? I don't know - I really did enjoy it. I suppose there have been a lot of factors but I really think my blogging decline started when I signed up with a Facebook account. Since then my blog posts have steadily dropped off until halting all together in April. I don't really post many status updates on Facebook but have in the past spent a lot of time playing the games. Most notable are Farm Town, FarmVille, Farkle, Mahjong, Mahjongg Dimensions, and FrontierVille. There is obviously only so much time in a day and when some of it is spent playing games on Facebook the blogging will suffer. I only really play Mahjongg Dimensions any more but will once in a while do some farming in Farmville. I do like Frontierville but it sort of bogs down our circa 2005 computer and I got sick of that.

In addition to Facebook games I used to spend a good deal of time cruising other people's profiles. I suppose some people might call that stalking...

Yep, one of these days I should blog. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Four Day Weekend

We are having a four day weekend-no school Thursday because of Veteran's Day and Friday is a day off for conferences. I subbed all three days this week and am tired. Tuesday was long and challenging. I had a Kindergarten boy drop the F-bomb a couple of times. I was so shocked-a five year old! I was even more shocked today when Samantha said a girl in her class said the F word-at least Samantha told us she didn't know what the F word was until the girl said it. She now knows but knows it's not appropriate to say. What a sad world we live in.

I remember when Gerrit was in the first or second grade and he said kids on the bus were saying the F word. I asked him what the F word was-telling him he wouldn't get in trouble for telling me. He told me fart. I was a bit relieved and thought it was funny that he thought the F word was fart. I don't know why he thought that was such a bad word-it's used around here quite often.

Anyway, I am glad we have a mini break from school. I do have a bit of shopping to do and cleaning-our storage room looks like an episode of hoarders-I am not kidding. Things are a bit out of hand down there-I've got a lot of my dad's home movies, videos, etc. plus I still have to put summer clothes away. I don't really see this as a break from school now but it needs to be done. I'm scheduled to sub almost the rest of November and those days could still be filled.

Donovan also sees the allergist tomorrow and Samantha sees her pediatrician on Friday. She's failed two tympanograms which means she has fluid in her ears. I imagine she'll be prescribed antibiotics to see if that clears it up and if not she'll be referred to the ear doctor for possible tubes. I know about these things. I've been through this before-more than once!

On Saturday, the girls and I are headed to Minot for a Girl Scout event-Medieval Times. I thought it would be fun and it was for all ages of Girl Scouts so they can both go. Barb and Sydney and a couple of Aleah's friends are also going-the weather looks decent.

50 days until Christmas

Bruce told us tonight at supper that there were 50 days until Christmas-that's coming fast. Yikes! I'd better start getting ready.

The last month has been so crazy busy-actually the last six months have been crazy and not always good so just the busyness is much easier to deal with. Donovan finished up his first football season and really liked it. Aleah finished up basketball with a jamboree last Saturday in addition to the annual school carnival/haunted house. The sixth graders are in charge of the haunted house part and they had a blast. We helped set up Friday night at the school and after three basketball games on Saturday we were at the school for another five hours on Saturday. Gerrit got to be a tour guide and enjoyed that. Bruce and I took turns with other parents and sat behind the scenes.

Sunday was Halloween and after a potluck at church, Bruce and the kids carved pumpkins. We had mom over for supper and headed out to trick or treat. Mom stayed at our house to hand out candy while we drove to the governor's mansion and some friends and dropped Gerrit off at youth group. I then relieved mom so she could go home and Bruce took the kids around the neighborhood.

Mom is starting to get settled into her condo. We helped her hang some things a couple weeks ago and the kids and I helped her unpack-mostly dishes-she has A LOT of dishes. It's good to have her here. She's been able to come to one of Aleah's basketball games and came to Gerrit's orchestra concert last night. It was her birthday on Wednesday and Barb and I took her out for lunch. I hope she's able to start meeting people soon. She's been so busy so hopefully she can get out more.

I took her shopping after lunch and our van had trouble starting. I managed to get it home and was able to borrow mom's car until this morning. She had to go to Minot today. Bruce was in Williston this week. He put a new battery in it but that's not it. I hope it's nothing serious. I wasn't able to sub today-I was originally scheduled for middle school Spanish but I had no way to get there. I could have subbed in four different places today. I did manage three days this week so it was kind of nice to stay home today.

Tomorrow I'm going to do more cleaning and organizing around the house-it really needs it.There's no time for extra stuff when I'm working-just keeping up with laundry and dishes and getting kids from one activity to the next.

Back to the Future

I'm feeling nostalgic this morning. I have a rare day off from subbing and I did something I rarely ever do. This morning I sat down with a cup of coffee and watched a bit of the Today show since it was on that channel. It's usually on a kid channel in the morning but we were all interested in seeing the weather-we are currently under a blizzard warning for this afternoon and tonight. Anyway, I saw that the cast of "Back to the Future" was coming on so I watched it. It has been 25 years (insert a big gasp from me) since the movie premiered in theaters!!

I remember my mom and her good friend bringing my brother and I to it. Loren and I loved it-mom and Kathy not so much. I still love the movie and the kids have seen it on TV and they love it. It's a bit of my childhood and the movie is a classic. I can't believe that something that I grew up with is 25 years ago. I guess it really shouldn't be a surprise since I'll be 40 in just over two months but time has sure flown by.

Now I'm off to pick up my mom and we're going to Hobby Lobby before it starts to snow. She wants to look for some new things for her condo. I love having my mom in Bismarck!

My predictions

Lately, it seems like the kids are growing overnight. I think Gerrit is almost looking me in the eye. I can't believe my boy will be taller than me soon. That's crazy! I know my brother (who is 6'1) wasn't my height (I'm a little more than 5'9) until he was a sophomore in high school. Gerrit is an eighth grader. I wonder how tall he's going to get??

Last night I was talking to the kids about how tall they might get. These are my predictions. Someday when they're full grown I'll have to look back and see how close I was. I'm not using any scientific method-just my gut feeling. I just don't think the girls will be as tall as I am but who knows and I do think Gerrit will have at least a couple inches on Donovan.

Gerrit-6'3

Aleah- 5'8

Donovan-6'1

Samantha-5'7

It's Official

It's official. My mom is moving to Bismarck-soon. Very soon-like tomorrow! As I write this, the movers are putting things in the truck (I was in Williston over the weekend to help finish packing) and she'll stay the night at her cousin's house. She will sign the papers to close on her house in the morning and drive to Bismarck and sign the papers to close on her condo in the afternoon. She'll stay with us tomorrow night since she won't have a bed. The movers will deliver her things on Wednesday morning. I'm still tired from packing so I'm sure my mom is exhausted. Please pray that she gets good rest and doesn't get run down. It's a lot of work to move especially when you've lived in the same house for 37 years.

We looked at a lot of places over the summer. She knew early on what she wanted and finally in August she found it. She had no trouble selling her house-she sold it in one day. It's an awesome time to sell a house in Williston. It's kind of funny that this is the only place Donovan wasn't with when we looked at it. He was with every time we looked except this time since he was already in school. None of the kids have seen it so they're excited to see it tomorrow after school.

It'll be so nice having mom in Bismarck. She'll be able to get to the kids programs and activities and we can help her out when she needs it. I wish she and and dad would have moved a few years ago. Dad was wanting to move to Bismarck but mom was the holdout. I'm glad she decided to finally make the move.

Back in the swing of things

Mom and I got to Bismarck around five on Friday afternoon. Her checkup went well but her kidney function has become a bit of a concern again. A healthy person's function is near 100 and the doctors like to see transplant patients at 60. A year after transplant my mom was at 21-last year at 39. This year it was at 22. The immunosuppressant drugs are really hard on the kidney plus mom's kidney's took a hit from her back to back transplants and she was very close to having temporary dialysis. The plan for now is to cut back on one of her immunosuppressant drugs. Hopefully this will get the kidneys to function better and not cause rejection. The doctor told us when function reaches 15 that's when they look at putting a person on a kidney transplant list-we so hope we never have to do that!

The ride back from Rochester was interesting. The GPS took us through downtown Minneapolis which my brother has said is the quickest way if it's not rush hour. I think I'll stick with the more direct route of 494. It is a bit longer but there's no stoplights and less exits. We stopped for lunch at Culver's in Alexandria and I do believe mom must have had some bad food there because about a half hour later she started feeling sick and starting throwing up. I had to pull over three times from Barnesville to Bismarck. She was really weak and slept until I woke her up at 8:30 that evening. She had to take her meds and I thought she should try eating and drinking some. She woke up feeling fine in the morning and headed back to Williston after lunch.

Bruce took Aleah to the doctor after school on Friday. She's had a nasty cough for a long time. She has bronchitis. She does seem to be feeling better now. We didn't think she should play basketball on Saturday so we didn't have a game to attend over the weekend.

We are now decorated for fall and Halloween around here. I usually get it done sooner but it's just been too busy lately. Aleah and Gerrit also did a bunch of baking. Gerrit has to bring breakfast for his orchestra class on Friday so he and Aleah made three different types of muffins and we froze them. Aleah made monster cookies for treats for Wednesday night at church. We also bring supper that night. I'm making Sloppy Joes-are barbeques or slushburgers-depending on where you're from.

I could have and would have subbed today but I had to get my crown back on-it came off in Rochester. It's only been three weeks since it fell off before. The dentist is making me a new one since the old one is not working. Luckily there is no charge since it's been less than five years.

The next couple of weeks will be busier than usual. I probably should can spaghetti sauce today since I might not get a chance for awhile. Laundry, errands, and grocery shopping are up next though. Donovan has less than a week left of football so that will be nice to have one less thing. We also have a parent meeting tonight for the school's carnival/Haunted House-sixth grade parents are in charge. It's October 30 which is the same day as the sixth grade basketball jamboree-at least it's not the same day as Halloween.

So far so good

Day two of mom's tests are complete at the Mayo Clinic. I am exhausted so I can only imagine what she feels like having actually going through the test! Today's tests included a renal function test and full body CT along with a couple other exams-today was actually slower then yesterday. We were at the clinic from seven a.m. until after four. Today she was there at 6:30 but got to come back to the transplant house and rest for a couple of hours before going back for another four hours.

When mom has some of her longer tests, I spend some time browsing at the local Barnes and Noble-most certainly the coolest Barnes and Noble store I've ever visited-it's an old movie theater that looks like a castle. Barnes and Noble is one of my favorite stores. I carry a bag with books, water, and a few other things around the clinic when we're here. Those books sure are heavy-sure wish I had a Kindle or a Nook-hint, hint. I do have a pretty big milestone birthday coming up soon that is so close to Christmas too!

Anyway, so far the tests are looking good. Mom's liver functions are excellent and her blood work looks good. I can't believe it's been three and a half years since she's had her transplant. She is a walking miracle and I'm grateful to God for the time he's given us with her. I heard her telling someone yesterday that she almost didn't want to go through with the chemo and transplant especially when the doctors told her she had a lot against her and that she probably wouldn't have a good outcome, but she's happy she did go through with it. She got to see Loren get married and has another grandchild plus she and dad got to celebrate 40 years of marriage. Hopefully she'll have many more years with us.

Another try

Four months ago I was getting ready to go to Rochester for mom's yearly checkup. We never left Bismarck. Dad ended up in the hospital and for forty-six days we were by his side in Williston, Minot, and Bismarck. I am so glad I was able to be with him the last weeks of his life. It was incredibly hard but I will always cherish that time we had with him as we said our goodbyes.

Mom and I will be leaving in the morning. I'm praying everything checks out okay. She seems like a picture of health (not as strong as she once was but she is getting older and has been through a lot) these days so hopefully she's still cancer free and the liver is doing its job.

This will be my eighth trip to the Mayo Clinic. Mom must be getting near the twenty trip mark. It's been over four years since I first took mom there. It was really hard that first time not just because she was so sick but because I had to leave all my babies-and it was the first time I had been away from Samantha who was fourteen months at the time.

I actually look forward to it now-as much as one can look forward to going to the Mayo Clinic. Mom and I get to hang out and it's kind of a nice break from the normal everyday stuff. At least the kids are all in school now, but please say a prayer for Bruce-it's going to be a busy week for him!

Tomatoes

Since Saturday I have canned 22 pints of salsa, 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 7 pints of pizza sauce (using Roma tomatoes), and 6 quarts of plain tomatoes. I wish I could say I was done but that wouldn't be true. I think there's still at least as many tomatoes on the vine as I've already used. Oh well. It's nice to be getting it done earlier than usual-I don't think I've hardly ever canned this early with tomatoes. I'm taking a break from tomatoes for a few days now.

My next project is cleaning the basement-it's a good feeling to finally be getting some projects done around here.

Just wanted to give thanks to my friend Lana! The note you sent the other day was so nice. Thank you again-it really meant a lot!

Two months

Today marks two months since my beloved dad took his last breath on this earth. I know that he's in heaven and is no longer in any pain. I know that he now has a strong body and a strong mind and is rejoicing with his Heavenly Father. I know that there can be nothing better. I really know these things but that doesn't make me miss him any less.

I'm not sure why the last week has been hard for me. Maybe it's really starting to sink in now. I can't give him any more hugs, I can't listen to his funny sayings, I can't be in the same room as him and feel completely and totally at peace just sitting there in comfortable silence. I can't bake him a pie anymore-he loved pies. I made him a rhubarb pie for Father's Day but he never got to eat it since he couldn't swallow anymore.

One of my friend's mom told me after my dad died that. "You're lucky you had a good dad to mourn." She's right, but it sure isn't easy.

I'll always cherish my memories of my dad. I'm so glad we had this slideshow put together for his funeral. We watch it a lot-Samantha knows all the songs and sings along too.

http://www.fulkersons.com/usrfiles/laurence%20jorgensen.wmv

I think this is kind of funny....

My cousin in Oregon posted this on Facebook and I thought it was really funny. They have not yet went back to school. She has a son going into seventh grade and a daughter going into second grade.

I absolutely love my kids and feel blessed I've been able to stay home with them the last 13+ years, but I have to admit I'm starting to like the quiet time I get when they're at school. I'm enjoying the few days I can now since subbing will start keeping me busy soon.

10 Misconceptions of Moms and Back-to-school

Misconception Number 1: Moms miss their kids when they go back to school . Seriously. I’ve had enough of you by now. Every morning with the “what are we going to do today, Mom?” is finally over. I’ve had looked at your face twenty-four seven for the last 77 days. It’s time to go learn something. No more asking me about the pool, when is the next snack or if you can stay up late and watch a movie. It’s over….You’re going back to Hogwarts and I get to have a life again. There is a Christmas morning for parents and it’s called “back to school”.

Misconception Number 2: Moms like to go school shopping. Are you freaking kidding me? Why do I pay taxes?…so I can rack up a 200 dollar bill at Staples for crap that we have laying around my house in junk drawers. Why does it have to be new pencils? What’s wrong with the chewed up, broken strawberry shortcake pencils sitting in the bottom of the toy box for the last 6 months? And how many subject books can you possibly need? What happened to reading, writing and arithmetic. If they added a couple of things for parents to that list I wouldn’t mind so much….why not pencils, erasers and some Nyquil.

Misconception Number 3: Moms like back to school night. Why must we do this every year? I got it already. You’re the teacher…I’m the parent. My kid is either going to be smart or dumb. If he gets a certain number or colored dot on his discipline chart, he can’t get a prize from the prize box. Pretty simple stuff. Listen, I’m pretty old school. If he doesn’t listen to you…you can throw something at him. I don’t care. But I got a lot of work to do at home and I’m paying a babysitter right now. Plus, I’m pretty sure you are going to assign some project on wigwams made by some Indian tribe I’ve never heard of, so I need to get home and start my research. So, I got it. We’re all here for the betterment of the kids. Blah Blah Blah. Can I leave now?

Misconception Number 4: Moms like school paperwork. How many trees are you planning on killing to tell me the same stuff I had to pay a babysitter to listen to the other night? You know our name, where we live and our emergency phone numbers. He doesn’t have a nickname….call him “stinkbutt” for all I care. We don’t have any “special circumstances” that you need to know about. He lives in a home with two parents who may or may not like each other at any given time and they will fight. If that qualifies as a reason he can’t get his homework done on time then he won’t be able to function as an adult and have a real job so you may want to “educate” him on that life lesson.

Misconception Number 5: Moms like covering books in that annoying sticky paper. What exactly will you be doing with these books that I have to cover them in a plastic laminate? Do you often teach in the rain? Or while the children are drinking soda and eating soup? Do you know how long that takes? Has any parent in the history of education been able to do it without any air bubbles in it? From now on I’m covering it the old way…brown paper bags. That way I can cover the books and pack their lunches at that same time. Who says moms can’t multitask? PS. Please tell my son if he can’t find his lunch to look in his science book.

Misconception Number 6: Moms like helping you with your homework. What? I am scared out of my mind. I’m pretty sure that I forgot everything I learned in fifth grade by the time I was in sixth grade. I have no idea what you are talking about most days. I don’t really know my 12 times tables, I read the cliff notes to all your summer reading and I don’t know how to conjugate anything but I do know that song “conjuction junction what’s your function” if that helps at all. And please don’t even say the words “new math” to me. What the heck was wrong the old one?

Misconception Number 7: Moms can’t wait to pack your lunch every day until we die. I hate doing laundry. Making dinner every night is the bane of my existence, so making your lunch every day for an entire year, in terms of “mom fun”, lies somewhere between brushing plaque off the dogs teeth and scheduling my annual pap smear. Listen, as a child I hated what my mom packed me for lunch. But, like every kid before me, and every generation to come you will find a kid to trade with…I’m sure someone likes sardines.

Misconception Number 8: Moms love after school activities. I don’t know who made up this idea of organized clubs and sports but they should be the ones in charge of carting your butt around. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against all after school programs. I just wish they would offer it during hours that would work best for me so that dinner wasn’t at 8:30 at night followed by 4 hours of homework. Why not do it on the weekends and call it “after-hours activities” so mommy and daddy could actually go out one night and pretend that we have a life of our own. Don’t worry about us though I’m sure that me and “what’s his name” will be married a very long time.

Misconception Number 9: Moms don’t mind taking you to school if you miss the bus. Your bus comes at 7:10 am….which means that you should be standing by the door at 7:05 am. Not eating breakfast, chasing the dog around the house or in the bathroom, asking me to check your homework while I’m taking a shower. Get it together! I don’t like running down the street in my jammies at 7:12 screaming , “Please wait” or “If you stop , I’ll show you my boobies.”

Misconception Number 10: Moms cry on your first day of school . We do cry but they are tears of joy. I have done my job. I have successfully kept a human child alive for at least 5 years without doing any major damage. Motherhood is the hardest job in the world!! Sure, doctors save lives and CEO’s run million dollar businesses but…you teach a kid not to poop their pants and then you can say you’ve made the world a better place.

A Good First Day

The kids have two days of school under their belts for the year and enjoyed them both. Samantha loves school and loves riding the bus. Both Gerrit and Aleah have told her you won't enjoy it so much after years of riding it! They're all happy with the teachers they got and were happy to see their friends. Samantha already knew six kids in her class as well since she went to JumpStart Kindergarten.

I didn't cry when we dropped Samantha off at school-I think if I would have started I would have had a hard time stopping or maybe it just hasn't hit me yet that my baby is in Kindergarten. I know I did enjoy the quiet although I wasn't home much either day.

Thursday after all the kids were dropped off at their schools I got my haircut and met Barb and Karen for pedicures. We had a blast! We then went to Minerva's for lunch and we went to Barnes and Noble and walked around drinking our coffee and looking at books-we didn't go to the child's section either! We had a great time and were very relaxed and happy when the kids got home. Karen even said her oldest asked why she was in such a good mood.

Friday I met Tricia at the mall for a three mile walk and then looked at a possible condo for my mom. Bruce and I met his parents for lunch and then I got a few things at Target before I came home. I actually could have subbed on Friday but had the appointment to look at the condo for my mom so I didn't. Hopefully it picks up soon-I do sub on September 3rd already.

New School Year

The Bismarck school year officially starts tomorrow. We have been busy getting ready the last week or so with shopping, eye checkups, cleaning, etc. I do believe we're ready. Donovan and Samantha went to bed without any problems-Samantha at eight and Donovan at 8:30. The last few days we've been having them get up a little earlier too so it's not such a shock to them-rarely were they up much before nine this summer.

I remember always having a hard time falling asleep the night before school started even when it wasn't something new like starting junior high or high school-there was just a lot of excitement about who would be in your class and what teacher you would get-in elementary school we never knew until the first day who we would have-not sure why-it would have saved some anxiety. I'd have to say that's an improvement today. They have open houses before so the kids can meet their teachers and see their classrooms before they start school. I know as a teacher I think I was even more stressed about the first day of school then I was as a student! Hopefully next year I can be stressing about my first day of teaching.

I've kept really busy today so I wouldn't have to think about Samantha starting tomorrow. She was busy playing with the neighbor boy most of the day. I know I'm going to cry when I leave her. Hopefully I won't cry too much because I've already cried enough this summer. I am tired of crying! After getting my haircut, I'm meeting Barb and Karen for pedicures and lunch. Karen's daughter started Kindergarten on Monday so she's gotten a bit use to it but it'll be a new thing for Barb and I tomorrow.

I know the kids are ready for school. This is the first week where they've seemed a little bored and they are fighting more. Three out of four kids are super excited about starting tomorrow. The other one says he enjoys the first day but that's about it. He doesn't mind school but doesn't like getting up early and this year he has to be at school at 7:15 for orchestra-I can say Bruce and I aren't exactly looking forward to bringing him that early everyday either but the bus doesn't get to school until at least 7:45.

Here's to a good school year and hopefully we won't have any surgeries or major illnesses this year like last year.

And so it starts

Today I got a taste of what things will be like again when school and the kids' activities start up again very soon. From 2:00 p.m. when I brought the kids to get their glasses (Samantha is now the only one in the family (except Sadie) that doesn't wear glasses) until almost 6:30 I was busy going here and there. After we got back from getting the glasses and getting awesome ice cream at Clark's (99 cents waffle cones on Mondays) and Gerrit had his school open house. When we got back from that Samantha had dance registration. After that I was home long enough to cut green beans and strawberries before Bruce and I headed to our last Kindergarten orientation.

There were quite a few parents with their youngest going into Kindergarten and just a few that had their oldest starting. Tomorrow night is the back to school picnic. The kids will all get to see their classrooms and meet their teachers. Aleah has had her teacher for science last year so she's familiar with her and Samantha already had her teacher for Jump Start Kindergarten. I know and have subbed for Donovan's teacher but this is the first time any of the kids have had her. I'm glad we're getting to experience her because she's a good teacher. Gerrit likes to come back and visit with his old teacher's too. It will be sad not seeing Mrs. Gutman. She had all the kids except Samantha for second grade. She retired this spring. We had Mrs. G over to our house about three weeks ago to see our garden. She was excited to see it since Donovan wrote so much about it. She was very impressed too.

We're trying to get the kids to bed a little earlier each night and up a little earlier in the mornings so it won't be such a shock to them when school starts. Maybe that's why I'm so tired today. I'm staying up as late as I have been but getting up earlier-maybe that and all the places I had to go today.

Just a few more days...

School starts here on Thursday. Wow! I think the kids are ready for it. They are anxious to get back to seeing their friends on a more regular basis and to get some kind of schedule again; but I believe we all do enjoy the lack of schedules sometimes-not getting up so early, no homework, etc. so we'll miss that too.

This year will be a big change for me. I will no longer have anyone home with me during the day. Samantha will be in school full-time. I've always known this day was coming. My baby is growing up so fast. It makes me happy and sad. I'm happy that she's going to have so much fun at school and I will enjoy some quiet time to myself but sad that the time has gone so fast. It doesn't seem like it's been over five years since we brought her home from the hospital-that fussy black haired little girl. She's already so grown-up! She feels so comfortable at the school since she made her first visit there when she was five days old-to accompany us to parent teacher conferences and has been to all the kids open houses and programs since. She knows so many of the students there and spent two weeks in June with her Kindergarten teacher. I'm not worried about Samantha adjusting at all-she's going to love it. That makes me happy.

I'm sure I'll shed some tears that first day with my good friends Barb and Karen that are also sending their babies off to Kindergarten but I'll keep busy. Subbing will pick up in a few weeks. I would have liked to have gotten back into teaching full-time this year but the competition is really tough-70 teachers for one job. I may have to look into getting my reading credential so I can be a reading specialist. I think for this year it really is a good thing to do some more subbing. I can make my own schedule and be home when the kids are sick and to help out mom or to just take a day off to do what I want to do. It would be nice to do some long-term subbing this year though. Who knows what will happen?