Halloween!

Football

Jake had his first football game today.  He's on the 8th grade varsity team.  They won 30-12.  The team they played has beaten the 8th grade team every time for the last 7 years, until today.  : )  He's #65.

Sept. Stuff

The kids have settled into the routine of school.  Grace loves her teacher and is excited about going.  She only got teary the first couple of days.  Now, she's bummed when it's the weekend and there's no school.  Colt has a couple of honors classes and is taking both PE and weight lifting.  He opted not to do cross-country this season. Two hours of exercise, a day is enough.  Plus, it's hunting season.  Jake started football and has his first game on Saturday.  He made varsity as a guard on both offense and defense.   Cade's reading is getting better every day!  He's still in speech a couple times a week (those darn R's) and he gets reading help daily.  Now, if I can get his teacher to stop sending home word searches for homework.  Everything's a word search for kid with dyslexia! LOL!  Jared is still humoring us by attending the 5th grade. I think he may be a doctor when he grows up if his handwriting is any indication.  : )

The boys all received their results on state testing from last year.  Colt and Jared are both well above state standards.  Jake is above state standards in reading and is at level in math and writing.  Cade is at level for math and reading-yes READING!  He's thrilled.  (I think they tested him at his instructional level, not grade level.)

It's hunting season.  Colt is hunting deer with a bow this year.  Jared passed his hunters education class, so he's hunting rifle this year.  Jake too.  Kelly is off this week and is cutting firewood and hunting all week.  I have elected to shoot pictures this year not deer, so I am not getting my hunting license.  

We have a raccoon in our woods and we lost our duck Dart and Grace's favorite chick Calibre to it in a very graphic way, so the boys have been hunting that.   I want it gone.  I worry all night about my birds even though they are locked up tight in the barn and I am positive it can’t get in there.  (It has a cement foundation and metal doors.)  But they stay out right up to sunset and the coon comes out then.   I wish they would go in earlier, but chickens don't go to bed until they are good and ready.  : )

I start school on Monday.  I have all but one book.  (It hasn't been listed yet.)  I got a new backpack and binder yesterday, so I am all ready.  I also got my hair cut.  I had about a foot cut off, so it's chin length now.  I donated the hair to Locks of Love to be made into a wig for a child with cancer.  Kelly isn't thrilled that I cut my hair, but I like it.  It grows back really fast and a short do will be easier to wash and go for school.   

Hunting

August 2009

First Day of School...

Colt 9th Grade

Jake 8th Grade

Cade 4th Grade

Jared 5th Grade

Grace 1st Grade

August Random Thoughts...

This could also be titled "What the heck am I doin' up at 2am?"

I might regret saying this, since we have two weeks left before school starts, but here goes...I think we made it through the summer without a visit to the emergency room for stitches and/or super glue. Alert the media, this is a first for us!

Summer has just whizzed by. I can't believe it's almost time for school already. The kids will be in 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th grades this year. Yep, I have a high schooler. That makes me feel ancient. We've received teacher assignments and the older boys already know their schedules. I register Colt and Jake and take them for their sports physicals next week. Colt starts cross-country the Monday before school starts and Jake starts football the day after. This year, I will officially have kids in four different buildings. Grace in one, Cade and Jared together at another, Jake at the middle school and Colt at the high school. At least they are all with a mile or so of each other. I hope cross-country meets and football games are on different days. I hate trying to decide who's event I will attend and having to miss the other. Kelly might make it to some this year since he is working in town for now.

I don't start my college classes until the 21st of September. I will be taking three classes for 15 credits. I have Algebra, English and Intercultural Communications. I plan to get my AA-Lib. and transfer to a four-year college to get my B.A. in Anthropology and eventually my Masters. I am not sure if I am excited to finally be going to college or totally freaked out by the whole idea of being back in school. Colt, Jake and I will all be taking Algebra classes. Maybe they can help me with my homework.

My mom was here for a couple of weeks. We enjoyed spending time with her. She and I took a road-trip to the other side of our state for a wedding reception one weekend. It was nice. The car we drove in was not. I drive a very large Suburban and the smallest thing I've been in for years was a 4-runner. Mom rented a Ford Focus!? It was like hurtling down the road in a roller skate. I will stick to my gas-guzzling Sally thank you very much.

Kelly's family was here last weekend for our annual camping trip. We camped at my house. Lol! The kids and the aunts slept in tents out in the backyard. We played tons of poker. Cade was given a 10 cent limit on raising the bet after he won a $6 pot. A little while later, he was hitting his dad up for a loan. Lol! The kids had so much fun. I think they'd like it if our whole extended family lived in one big house all together so they could see them all the time.

We are down to 3 chicks from the bunch that Zora hatched. She had stopped taking care of them, but they were doing fine with the rest of the flock. We had five when one disappeared during the night. We think maybe a cat got her. It was weird. She went in her cage at night-I put her there-and was just gone in the morning. Something terrible happened to another one. He was grabbed by a big black bird right in front of the kids and Kelly's sisters. It was very upsetting. We've never lost any that way before. The remaining three won't be allowed out of their coop to roam the yard until they get bigger.

I should go to sleep. I have a ton of housework to do that I didn't get done today, which I probably won't do tomorrow either-at least I'm honest. And I started taking down the wallpaper in the bathroom and there's that to finish too. It's coming down quite easily. It's the mess it makes all over the floor that I don't want to deal with, so I am procrastinating on that too. All right, a quick spell check and I will be off. Night.