Back to School

The summer was a bust. We did not do very much. The kids started working on their National History Day projects in anticipation for the new school year. I tried to get the kids to catch up on their piano practice. I was hoping that they could finish their current levels and move on at the end of summer, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen either.

Emily had some summer reading also assigned to her for her honors english class this coming year. It was difficult to get her to crack down and work on it. She wanted to read fun books like her sister who was reading like a fiend all summer. She was going through a stack of books from the library every week. Emily did read a lot more than she did on previous summers but she was resistant to read the dry books assigned to her from school.

We were actually quite social this summer (much to Christian's dismay). We had dinners with friends and visited with relatives a lot this summer. We stayed in a lot as well and did a lot of cooking. Alas, lots of good food with little or no exercise does not bode too well for my waist line.

Since we were stuck inside a lot. We finally got around to doing a sewing project that I had gotten the kids a couple of years ago but never got around to doing. It was a simple envelope pillow case. We went through the basics of stringing the sewing machine, winding thread on the bobbins and they had some exercises in sewing along straight and winding paths before starting. They had fun and the pillows came out great. I totally forgot to take pictures of them. We are ready to start something a bit more ambitious next, but as summer is all but over, that will have to wait until next year.

We went to back to school orientation and registration for Emily. She is starting high school this year and was very nervous as the school (and the kids) are so much bigger there. We got there early and had to wait in a long line out in the sweltering sun. They let us in late and we had to wait in one line after another to get her books, have her picture taken, get her ID, etc. We walked her around the campus so that she could get a lay of the campus. In the end, we find out that we still don't have her exact schedule. Apparently, she doesn't get that until she arrives for her first day of school. She went back later that evening for the Freshman BBQ. We did not go with her but she arranged to meet up with one of her close friends from Junior High.

After what happened with Emily, we did not bother going early for Caitlyn's registration day early. We mostly knew what to expect since we had already gone through it all before when Emily went there. We had to sit through the chromebook meetings all over again and Caitlyn had to take her school ID photo and receive her chromebook. 

August

August went by as another hot steaming blur. It has been a pretty miserable this summer. None of our plans worked out and it is almost too hot to go anywhere.

The kids have been swimming a lot with their friends in the neighborhood. We even met up with Caitlyn's friend from school once at the public pool.

It seems to be the only thing we can do in this weather.

On the second weekend of the month, Christian and Caitlyn took off for their daddy-daughter camp out. They were headed out Friday morning to Laurel Mountain. They had been planning on the trip for a year now. I got several texts from Christian as the progressed up the 395. By the late afternoon, I figured that they had arrived to their destination and was setting up for the night as they were to get up for an early start. However, later that evening, I found out that they were in Lassen!

Apparently, there were fires all over the place and the air was thick with smoke. Plus, Caitlyn was getting cold feet about their climb. Christian decided to let her off the hook and let her choose a new destination on the fly. She chose to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park since she has never been there before.

The hiking was easy and the place was crowded and smelly, but beautiful. They spent the day exploring the park. Unfortunately, as they were going back to find a campsite for the night, Christian's truck started running roughly. We are not sure what the problem was. They decided that they had better just start heading home and see how far the truck will take them. It was a risky decision for them to go so far since my truck has been having all sorts of problems as well and we were not sure what a long drive would do to it. 

I got several messages during the night updating me on their progress. I thought for sure that we would have to pick up and go after them at some point, but they drove through the night. Christian only pulled over briefly to get in a quick cat nap before continuing on their long journey back home. They made it back safely in the morning.

While they were off on their adventures, we spent time locally as we did not want to drive very far with my questionable car. We did some shopping on Friday and went out to lunch. On Saturday, we went to Roller City so that Emily can practice with her roller blades. I stuck with the old fashioned roller skates.

I still fell once in the beginning as I had not gone to a roller rink since before I was Emily's age! It hurt a lot more than I remember from when I was a kid. I don't know if it is because I am bigger and heavier now or they just don't make roller rinks like they used to! It is basically a laminated cement floor. There was even some puckering on one side of the rink from water damage or something so the floor was not entirely even where I fell. Anyway, I was pretty sore afterwards and apparently hurt my right wrist because it hurt for the rest of the month!

Emily did pretty well, but fell several times still. I think her butt was pretty bruised in the end and we called it a day after her third fall. We decided to go out for Ice Cream to soothe or sore butts and egos.

After Christian returned, we tried to figure out what was going on with his truck but it seemed to be running fine and normal after that!