Saturday, August 13, 2011

Quick Update

Wow. It has been almost three months since I have posted. The non-posting is due to a combination of business and laziness. I think that is most summers can be described as a combination of being busy and being lazy. Haha! Anyhoo, here is a quick update on things we did this summer.

  • Hubby took Joe and Cakes to Father and Sons. Camping, fires, throwing things, and general male goofiness was had by all.
  • I studied for and took two AEPA: Elementary Education Subject Knowledge and Professional Knowledge-Elementary Education. I passed them both. (Thank Heavens!!)
  • Our family recertified to do foster care.
  • Miss A participated in a dance concert. She performed a hip-hop number with schoolmates. It rocked! 
  • Miss J & Miss L participated in a dance concert. Miss J performed in two group numbers and Miss L performed in one. They were fantastic! 
  • Miss L graduated from high school. It was a crazy day. Miss L went from being super-happy about graduating to freaking out about what she was supposed to do know. The roller coaster of emotions continued throughout the summer. Poor girl!
  • Rose participated in a band concert. She has played trombone this year. She sounds good...which is saying a lot!
  • Rose attended band camp. There were four classes each day: Theory, Intermediate First instrument (trombone), Beginning Second instrument (flute), and Choir. They had a concert at the end of camp. It was wonderful.
  • Miss Q has shown back up in our lives. We are quite relieved by this. She has been wandering for a while. She was able to graduate from high school. We are helping her get started in college (hopefully) and get on her feet. It will be slow work...
  • Rose, Anne, and Joe won awards for their Top Readers Group at school. They rocked the competition, each receiving awards and prizes for their reading amounts. They were so happy.
  • 4-H had their year end banquet. It was an interesting night. Rose and Anne ended up being elected as Junior Officers for this next 4-H year. Rose will be Junior Vice President and Anne will be Junior Secretary. This will be a good chance for them to experience responsibility in a new way and to develop leadership skills. It will also be a good chance for me to perfect my driving skills as I chaufer them here and there. ;)
  • I had a birthday. I spent it driving to the San Diego Temple with a friend. It was an excellent way to spend my birthday.
  • Our whole family plus the Sisters Three attended Hubby's family reunion in Strawberry. We went to Fossil Creek to swim twice, took a hike to Clover Springs, attended a Fourth of July breakfast, played tons of games, and laughed uproarously as my teenage nephew blatantly (and poorly) attempted to flirt with Miss J and Miss L. Good times, people. Good time!
  • Saw Harry Potter 7, part 2. As expected, the screen writer completely changed the story in disappointing ways. But I am so happy that I saw it because now it is done!!!  I never have to watch the wretched movies again. I can stick with the glorious stories that J.K. first wove.
  • Miss A turned 14. She usually celebrates with her Mom, but was stuck with us due to the circumstances. The goose had quite the list for her birthday. We took her to Chuck E. Cheese, had a chocolate Hannah Montana cake and vanilla ice cream, sang Happy Birthday about fifty million times (each time she blushed and beamed), ate her favorite breakfast of cheesy eggs and her favorite dinner or burritos, had a pinata filled with candy, and watched shows that she wanted to watch. Miss A is quite young at heart. She had a wonderful, wonderful day.
  • Our family (minus the Sisters Three who were visiting their Mom) drove to San Diego with another family. It was great. Hubby and I attended a Temple Session while the Mom and Dad watched our kids at a park.Then they went to the Temple while Hubby and I took all the kids to the beach. Afterwards we split up. The other family went to Sea World. We took our kids to see the San Diego Temple then went to the Morman Battalion Historical Site. It was a lovely, lovely day.
  • Physical and Legal custody of the Sisters Three was granted to their dear Mother. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am by that!! Their Mother was so happy she came right over after court, packed up all their things, rented a trailer, gave me a hug, and drove off into (literally) the sunset. The Sisters Three are all doing well and are happy to be with their Mom.
  • The very next day a sibling set was brought to our home. The girl (Miss Nita) is 4 and the boy (Professor X) is 6. They are cuties!
  • And the very next week a teenage girl (Miss S) came to live with us too. So we have a full house again. We are in the process of rearranging our home to best accomodate everyone.
  • I completed four Master classes. That is twelve more credits out of the way. Hooray! Only a year left. :)
  • Everyone went to the Dentist. It was pathetic. Our teeth are all super clean, but we still got cavities. Only Rose had no cavitities. Hubby has one near an old filling. I have TWO! One near an old filling and one in between my very back teeth...the teeth that are too close together for me to fit a piece of floss through. It is very depressing.
  • School started again. Joe, Rose, Anne, and Prof. X are in elementary. Miss S is in high school. It is going to be a great school year.
  • Hubby built me a compost pile. It is 8 foot long, 32 inches deep, and 36 inches tall. It is beautiful.
Currently, I am studying for another AEPA: Middle Schools Social Studies. I think I am going to fail. History is such a broad topic and there are so many interpretations of events, I'm not sure that I will have the "correct" interpretation that the test requires.

I'm also getting ready to teach preschool to Cakes, Miss Nita, and a couple of boys from the neighborhood. It should be fun.

2 comments:

Megan said...

I can't imagine how you have the energy for it all but it sounds fun!!

Christina said...

I'm exhausted for you. Make sure you fit in a nap once in a while. And when you have some spare time, teach classes on how the heck you do it all. You are AMAZING!!!! Thanks for keeping us updated.