Tuesday: blue route

It was a rather busy day.  Not the busiest, but there were a lot of things that needed to get done.

Work was fine.  The chair-to-be found me and anxiously asked if I'm planning to teach again next year.  I am!  They are very happy to have me and I'm very happy to have this job.  I do think that another section for a semester would be a good idea to get some of the backlog through so that students are taking it at a better point in their curriculum, but finding someone could be hard.

Isaac had the first of two days of rock climbing trials tonight.  That being said, today really was optional for him.  It was an open trial meant especially for new and younger athletes.  However, most of the older athletes were there too...they're all just so excited to get started and think, "Team!  Climb!  Let's go!!"

I climbed for the first half hour.  I had a very nice time.  This is probably one of the first times I've climbed by myself - usually Isaac or Joshua is also climbing and it changes things.  Anyway, my plan was to not even look at the bouldering wall.  I was just going to do the auto-belays.  I like belays the best, but I also figured there would be a ton of kids that were climbing on the bouldering walls.  Anyway, I finished the blue route!  I've been working on it for a few days and the holds are skinny.  There is still some hold to grab on to, but they aren't great jugs.  Several times I've been one hold from the top and have just run out of steam.  I tried it several times today, not quite getting there.  Then I took a longer break, chatting with another mom, and tried it one more time.  I got it!  It was a great way to end.  Oh, the level is a 5.9.  I can do 5.9 routes, but it usually takes some work before I get them.  There is also a 5.10- that I've made some progress on, but they do get harder.

I still had some chores when I got home.  They were important and I was still going so they weren't too bad to do, but I am now tired.  Good thing it's time for bed!

Monday: labor day

It was a pretty easy day.  Joshua and I took a nice bike ride in the morning.  He resisted me all summer with the bike, but once we finally did it he realized he does like it.  Anyway, it was a nice ride.

We got some work done.  

We played some more of Isaac's D&D champaign.  We fought a dinosaur this time.

I'm not very excited to go to work tomorrow.  But off we go.

Sunday: fun chores

Once in a while chores are fun.  Today the kids started taking apart the box spring.  We didn't really know what to expect inside, so it was an interesting project.

We played more D&D today.  It was good, although not as good as yesterday.  I was a horse the whole thing and just said, "neigh" once in a while when I wanted to say no.  Giraffe got in on the action when some farie dragons polymorphed some flowers into a giraffe.  We also met a unicorn.

Saturday: D&D

Isaac has been working on his own D&D champaign for several months.  He has spent a lot of time on it.  It isn't finished, but it is far enough along that we decided that we should just start.  We started last week but it was just a introduction section.

Today we went into the forest.  We met a shady character but nothing happened.  We met a wandering traveler and didn't buy his shiny rocks.  We ran into a group of goblins.  Joshua is the most charismatic of all of us (and I was a warhorse) so he decided to talk to the goblins and see if we could just go safely by them.

They wanted his shield.  (Of course not.)  They wanted his sword.  (No way.)  They wanted something shiny.  Oh no!  We didn't buy any shiny gems.  Without missing a beat, Joshua offers them the shiny wrapper of his granola bar.  They decided they also wanted the granola bar.  And, just like that, we were able to continue on our way.

Friday: no school

Yesterday Joshua came home with his baritone.  It's so big compared to him.  Luckily though, the school has enough baritones that he can have one at school and one at home, so he doesn't have to lug it back and forth.

Today was nice.  We went on a bike ride in the morning.  The weather was lovely and the road was nice and smooth.  (There have been a ton of scooters and roller blades now that the road is smooth.  It's been fun to see.)

In the afternoon we went to the other rock climbing place.  It was a good time.  There were some fun routes.  Joshua only had a medium good time, but we did a take-away and he bought himself a donut and then read for a bit.

Wednesday: road

They've been resurfacing our road.  Yesterday the ground the old stuff out and today they put the new stuff on.  The letter that we received two months ago said that we'd have access to our houses.  They lied.

Not by much, but when Ben tried going down our road today they wouldn't let him.  He said he had a broken foot and couldn't walk that far.  The construction guy was unhelpful and said he'd have to wait a few hours.  We ended up have Ben park at our neighbor's house, since their driveway is on the opposite road that was already finished.  Then he could scooter up their walkway and only needed to walk across one lawn.  There might have been others doing the same thing.  (What would have happened if I was trying to go get the kids from school during this time?  There was a work-around here, but if things are going to be closed for more than 15 minutes I feel like we should be warned.

Isaac and I went to the Tulip City Rock Group tonight.  They had a silent auction.  There were some cool pieces.  There was also a junior table, which was only for kids 18 and under.  There were only three kids there and one only bid on a few things.  Isaac came back with some really nice pieces for $23 total.  We needed to get a bag because we wouldn't have been able to carry all of them in our hands.  Also, we talked to some people this time!  It was a little less awkward than last time, so maybe we'll go again.

Furthermore, we found out that we'll get in free at the rock show in two weeks - when you consider that it is $20 for the family to be members for a year and we can go to the rock show for free, this is an activity that pretty much pays for itself. 

Tuesday: first day

Today was my first day of classes!  They went well, except that the wireless internet was crazy slow.  And sometimes Moodle was really slow.  Since I mostly talk on the first day it wasn't too big of a deal, but it made for some annoying moments.

Also, I have a good conversation from yesterday:
Isaac: Hey Dad, what is the time you've come closest to dying

Ben and Amanda think: what what?

Isaac: ...  ... in D&D?

Ben: dude.  Phrasing.

Monday: naps

All the lovies and Horizon were ready for naps at 8:30 this morning.

Nap pile!  Creeper despises nap pile but everyone else loves it.

I also uninflated our inflatables, and used a clothes pin to help.  I'm not sure why I've never done this before.  I felt like a genius for thinking of it and an idiot for not thinking of it sooner.

Sunday: animals

Tornado was stalking something outside:

But they must have learned that it's safe to come to the deck, despite the cat in the door and the fact that I was picking raspberries 10ft away.  (They enjoy the dropped bird seed.)

I also found this amazing dragonfly on the raspberry bushes.  It is prime raspberry season, so I didn't pick all the raspberries.  Therefore, I decided I could leave him alone and get the raspberries tomorrow.

Saturday: colors

This morning Isaac had a local rock climbing competition.  The expansion was opened up (briefly) for the first time.  There weren't quite as many people either, so it was a bit less busy than normal.  Isaac was in the intermediate category this year so it was quite a bit harder.  However, he still got two tops and several zones.

My raisin bread was good.

Cheryl and I did a guided painting in the evening.  My grass looks way different from the example painting, but I couldn't get nice little thin strokes like the example (the second one below).  It ended up being a feature; you can see the moon through the grass.

Friday: a bit better

My chores today were a bit better.  I started working on the storage room again.  While it never got as bad as it originally was, over the summer it did get significantly worse.  I didn't get to the bad part (yet), but did finish the mini project that I had started before summer.

I made a new bread today - apple juice and raisin.  It smells really good, but I just pulled it out of the oven so I haven't tasted it yet.

Thursday: first day of school

I forgot to share this lovely conversation from two days ago:

Isaac: where'd you get so much cinnamon and sugar?  I though we only had a small spice jar of it. Amanda: ...I made it.
Isaac: ...
Amanda: ...
Isaac: oh! You mixed cinnamon and sugar! 

Anyway, we had some first day pictures.  Joshua was not excited about this.

I got a lot done, but it wasn't exciting.

I also changed out pictures on the picture wall.  We've done too many fun things in the last six months and I had too many pictures to change out...I got rid of some really cute ones and was a bit sad about it.

Wednesday: furniture

It was a good last day of summer.

We biked to donuts.  It was a bit misty, but not enough to stop us.  The donuts were good.

We moved Isaac's new bed frame into his room.  It was outside his room last night, which took up a lot of room.

We put some cubes together for the basement. 

We got a cute cubby for the cats too.

After lunch the local mission picked up a dresser, so that is finally out of the main area too.  Isaac and Joshua worked well together and got the electronics on Isaac's bed working.  I was a bit surprised they managed to get it working without me, but I was also pleasantly surprised.

Lastly, we went bowling.  It's been a while since I've gone.  I did a really good job of getting 9 points a frame: 13 out of 20 frames I ended up with 9 points.

Tuesday: life

We were going to bike to the donut shop this morning, but it was raining.  (We need the rain a lot, and I love rain, so it was a happy thing.)  So we switched days and made Empty Tomb Rolls instead.  I promised the kids that we would make them, but Easter was busy.

But that's ok...we should celebrate the resurrection of Christ all the time!

Well, the marshmallows didn't melt like they were supposed to, and so we all laughed about this.  And...the presence of Christ should expand.  They still tasted good.

The kids had a library event, but after a ton of traffic I managed to go to the wrong branch.  I've remembered to check every other library event, but just assumed for this one.  We made it to the right one about fifteen minutes late, but they were very kind about it.  It was for a cardboard cutting machine, and then the kids made cacti out of cardboard.  While they were doing the event one other mom and I finished up the puzzle we've been working on for a while.

And then it was meet the teacher night!  Joshua's room is very nice and his teacher seems down-to-earth.  We brought school supplies in, and left with more school supplies.  They were giving out boxes of supplies to all students.  We stopped by the art room to talk about art club - I'm hoping Joshua will be interested in it and I think stopping in helped that a ton.  Isaac is also interested, but it would also make his Tuesday's really busy so he was thinking no.  We walked around Isaac's classrooms.  He has many similar teachers as last year so that's mostly nice.  Finally, we stopped by the music room so Joshua could select an instrument for band.  He decided on baritone.  The school has some baritones to loan out and since not many students select baritone we might be able to use it for the year for free.

I got to open some great presents when we got home.

Monday: mini donuts

 We made mini-donuts with the sourdough starter today.  They were good, but not amazing.  I don't think they'll be on my list to make again soon, although the kids could probably persuade me to make them one or twice a year.

Sunday: today

Today was fine; nothing too exciting to write about.

We met the new Student Ministry Director (grades 6-12) after church.  It was billed as a meet and greet so I thought it would be about 15 minutes, but everyone sat down and it was more meeting like and took 45 minutes.

The family game was Century: Golem edition.  It's one of the games Joshua willingly plays.  Anyway, this game played out very differently as we bought almost all of the gem trading cards.  Usually we only buy a few, focusing on buying the golem cards.  Everyone had fun with it because it was playing out very differently.  (I still didn't win.  I triggered the end of the game, but didn't manage to win.  Again.  I'm not sure if I've ever won this game, but don't have any proof of that.)

Saturday: friends

We had some friends over tonight.  It was a lovely time, as always.  The kids played in the basement, in the lake, and then in the basement again.  The adults enjoyed catching up.

Friday: normal day

It was a normal day today: I had plans to get lots of things done and only got a few things done.

Thursday: Sandy Pines

Today we went to Sandy Pines to visit Uncle Lee and Aunt Susan in our yearly visit.

We started with a round of mini-golf, followed by lunch.  They have pretzels at the canteen, and they're always a hit.

Then we went on the ropes course.  This is the first time we've been around when the ropes course was open.  It was a good one!  I thought Joshua was going to freak out on the second leg, but he made it through that one and then he was good from there out.  He even did that leg a few more times with no issues.

We also walked in the creek for the first time!  We decided not to do the pool, so the creek was a perfect way to cool off.  And although most of the time it was only ankle deep, it was so cold.  We walked up it a bit to see their backyard.

Overall, it was a lovely time as always.

Tuesday and Wednesday: life

I made some naan with my sourdough.  The bread was good but it could use a bit more flavor.  (Also, not as good as the restaurant's but better than the store-bought stuff.)  The sourdough started was recently named Brad.  It's not quite bread yet.

Monday Ben was able to drive himself to work and I was telling the kids how weird it felt.  Isaac said, "aw, he's all grown up" in just the right voice.  He did it again today, but I don't remember what the context was.

Last night I came home to this.  Joshua had cleaned the raspberries and covered them.  However, there are big holes in the basket so the cover really doesn't do anything at all.

We bought two tomatoes at the store.  I gave one to each kid and told them to keep it safe.  That meant a note in the fridge.  Speaking of the store, we were all there for school supplies.  It. was. terrible.  There were barely any college ruled anything.  We had to dig through boxes and then open one up to find the college ruled notebooks.  There was one box of college ruled composition books that took five minutes to find.  There was one box of 8 expo markers.  There were no boxes of Ticonderoga pencils.  We never found glue sticks.

Who likes wide rule notebooks, anyway.

Monday: a nice day

Isaac spent most of the day with Cheryl today.  Joshua and I had a lovely day with just the two of us.  One of the summer projects has been to put together the Mario Lego sets we have.  They were all in a box, because they're much easier to play with if they're put together, but in reality they were falling apart.  I think we have two or three sets left, but it's been fun working together to restore function.  Once we have them together, they can get played with for a bit and then they'll get stored as built sets but in separate bags; hopefully that will still make play somewhat easy without it being too crazy.

We also bought Joshua some shoes.  I don't understand shoe shopping.  At all.  The little mat in front of the kids shoes clearly said he was a size seven.  PSA: kids shoes only seem to go up to size 5, and there aren't many of those.  Ok.  So we walked around a bit and we used an actual shoe sizer, which said he was a size 4.  He tried on some of the shoes and we ended up with a size 5 so there is a bit of room to grow.  I'm still not sure what to do when Isaac needs new shoes; men's shoes don't seem to come in small sizes.  I cannot wait until we get out of this weird sizing limbo that is "big kid" shoes and I don't have to think so hard about it.  I will not be sad to never wonder about shoe sizing systems again.  

Isaac got his first set of Invisalign retainers today.  (An equivalent of braces.  They are trays that can be popped in and out.  They must be popped out while eating, but you can eat anything.  They also look a ton more comfortable on the inner mouth than braces.  They take a bit more responsibility, but Isaac can do that.)  The first few days he might be achy, but that should lessen as time goes on.

Sunday: old friends

Brian and Amy and family came over for the afternoon.  We played some games and talked.  Joshua and Emily played together the whole afternoon (Legos and in the lake) while Carolyn joined them a little bit.  Isaac was feeling a bit under the weather so he played games with us and relaxed instead.

We went to Larry and Cheryl's for dinner and it was lovely to see them again too.

Saturday

 Happy cat day!

Joshua finished his kitchen week.  He had a much different approach to kitchen week than Isaac.  Isaac tried to keep the kitchen clean.  Joshua did the bare minimum needed to keep the dishwasher processing.  If I had to have guessed, I would have switched the actions of the two kids.

The rest of the day was pretty boring.

Friday:

It was a pretty normal day today.  I dropped off Ben, Joshua and I went grocery shopping, we finished our escape room, Isaac and I finished a different game.  After lunch was an appointment, a nap, a few chores, and my bakery time - pizza crust and another sourdough loaf.