Fall is Here!

Well fall is here in Michigan. The trees are changing colors and we have started to put up are Halloween decorations. The neighbor boy came out and said "gee, my parents don't put out decorations." I told him wait until Christmas.

Lizzy 's having fun with swimming and the season is almost over. She says she is going to start babysitting more after so she has more spending money. She is getting ready for her first homecoming this weekend. She didn't want to go last year, but changed her mind at the last minute and it was too late, so this year I have been preparing her earlier. I knew she would want to go.

Allard was elected star of the month for sixth grade at school. Six teachers get together and vote and three students are honored each month. He gets is picture on the board by the front office for the month, and a front of the line pass for lunch and ice cream. He will receive an award at the honors assembly in May with any others he might earn thru the year. But what was most impressive was the letter sent home telling us that he was elected because his teachers thought he came to class prepared and on task, is friendly and kind to others. His English teacher said he is a joy to have in class and a leader to the others. I of course was pleased. And then wondered "Are we talking about the same kid?" The kid who thought he did enough work in school that he should not have to do homework in third grade.

Wonders are all around. HAHAHA

Where to find the Time

Things here have been busy as ever. I don't know if I mentioned it but we lost Wicket last month so now we are animal free for the moment. I have told the kids we will get another animal but just not yet. With our live still so topsy-turvy it is nice not having to worry about what to do with the animals if we want to take off for a few days.

Swim Team is in full force right now and so Lizzy is only home long enough to eat, do homework and sleep. The rest of the time she is at the pool and in class. She is really trying hard to get her varsity letter this year.

Allard has joined the cross country team and seems to like it. Of course he came home from the first practice and bragged how he had beaten everyone including the eighth graders. But the next day he mentioned he was sore and we had to explain that the reason he beat the bigger kids is that they knew to take it slow to get your muscles going.

Bowling has started for the kids, so for now Evie and Allard bowl on Mondays in one league and all three bowl on Saturdays in another. The Monday league only has four more weeks left, but I am thinking of letting them continue by joining a Tuesday league.

Well no said life was boring here in Michigan.

First Day of School 2008

Well it has finally arrived! The First Day of School.

Lizzy wouldn't let me take a picture of her at the bus stop. Heck she only let me walk her to her stop until she could be seen by the other kids and then she dropped back and acted like I was just another neighbor out for a walk. (HAHAHA)

Allard was not happy about mom taking pictures either but once he saw another mom taking pictures too, then he let me. Of course tonight he asked me if I had to walk with him to his bus stop again tomorrow.

Evie was the only one that was happy to have her picture taken and mom to walk her to her classroom. In fact, she said I could walk her to class whenever I wanted. I knew she was a keeper. (HAHAHA)

Evie is So Cute

Evie is so cute. She overheard Jeff talking to his mom about the funeral arrangements, and it was mentioned that it would be too hard for all of us to fly in for three days , plus the kids would miss their first days of school.

So Grandma said maybe after things calm down she would like to make a trip here to visit the kids. Well that was all Evie needed to hear, she ran up stairs to her room and made sure it was clean and then made her bed so her grandma could come and stay in her bed. She lined all her stuff animals against her closet door so her bed would have plenty of room.

I came home from work and of course had to take a picture and e-mail it to grandma and let her know that her bed would be ready. (HAHAHA)

Family Sadness

At 11:05 pm Michigan time (8:05 California) Jeff got the phone call that his father had past away. Apparently he had a heart attack yesterday and was moved to a hospice care facility where he suffered another attack this evening. Jeff and his sisters will be flying in to be with his mother. Unfortunately, the kids first day of school is Tuesday, so we will not be flying in with him.

Registration has Begun

Yesterday was registraion for Lizzy and Allard. They got their class schedules and locker assignments. They saw their friends and got to see who has who in what classes to look forward too. We are still waiting to see who Evie will be getting. We expect the letter in the mail by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. But they still have time because school starts here on Sept. 2nd.

Lizzy had an practice swim meet yesterday. The girls split into two teams and raced against each other. She swam in the 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay, and the 400 freestyle relay. She did pretty good and her team won the meet. She is 2 seconds from making the State Division meet requirement. Which means if she gets two seconds faster and stays there she could go to the state meet in December.

This morning the team is getting together for a breakfast and then they are going to pass out flyers for their can drive. I volunteered to help drive the girls around. And then the kids want to go sign up for a fall league at the bowling alley, so we will probably be doing that too.

Slowly we are filling up our time with activities for the kids again.

Evie's 8

Well here we are again. Evie had to have a birthday again, I told her to stop growing, but you know kids. They never listen. So we went to Chuck E Cheese and she got to see a few of her friends from her class. She has been playing outside every chance she gets, but she is playing with the neighbor kids and not her friends from school. They have been as busy as her I guess.

She was really excited because she got 4 new WebKinz plus a cute webkinz purse and trading cards. Of course Allard was felling bad because the girls already had more webkinz then him. So I told him that he could write on his invitation when his birthday comes around that he only wants webkinz. So after thinking about this for a few minutes he asked me if he invited 20 childs to his party did that mean he could get 20 webkinz.