Well, we are down to about a week before school starts. I took a week of vacation from the grocery store last week in order to get all my stuff ready for preschool. It was a much needed vacation but I'm still not 100% ready for preschool to start! I'm close, but not quite ready! I have turned in my work availability to the grocery store for September. I'm going to try to work a closing shift on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I figure we can give it a shot for a month and see how it goes. If it's too hard I can chop a day out of that and just do two days a week. Travis got a notice from work saying that last month was slow but it's about to get slower so I'm pretty sure having a job that gets me a discount on groceries won't be a bad thing! He also applied to be a substitute bus driver while he was home this time. This could be interesting!
While Travis was home this last time we made a trip to Manti. We got to go to the Bown family reunion up Manti Canyon. The kids had a great time playing with and seeing their cousins. Made me sad we didn't get up there more this summer! Maybe next year??
The girls and I went with my mom to Park City on Friday to do some school shopping. We had a little success at the outlets but we did the best at Gordman's in Ogden. After we came out of Gordman's it was pouring rain so we went next door to Applebee's to have dinner and hopefully wait out the storm. Luckily by the time we finished eating the rain had stopped. It was still a super dark night though because there was still a ton of cloud cover. We got back on the road and missed the freeway entrance. We went up the road a little further and my mom was going to just turn around. If you've driven on Riverdale Road in Ogden you know this road. When heading west you have a right turn lane, three straight lanes, a no travel lane and then a left turn lane. If you don't know about the no travel lane two blocks back you can't turn left. Well, we didn't know about the no travel lane. My mom was in the farthest straight lane and was preparing to turn left. She had her signal on and had stopped in the intersection. About the time she stops I notice that the left turn light is about two lanes over. I look next to us and see the lane there has lines painted in it. I tell mom, "You can't turn here." So, mom checks mirrors for traffic, turns off her left turn signal and starts to go. Meanwhile the kid headed east waiting to turn left decides to turn as well. Let's just say that the dodge neon he was driving didn't fare as well as mom's Toyota Sequoia. The cop was really decent, no one got hurt and it was an adventure for the books. It scared the girls but they were fine since we were barely moving when it happened and they had seat belts on. But, now they can both cross off "Get in a car accident" off their bucket lists!
Sam's back to another dance boot camp this week (this is #5 and #6 this summer). She recently decided to join in on another dance as well. This one is being choreographed by a guy named Rick who really knows his stuff. He's the one that choreographed the dance that was the reason she chose this studio - as soon as I heard he was coming to choreograph for the studio again I knew she'd find a way to be involved! Joining this dance means that on Friday this week she's dancing from 8 am until 7 pm. It also means she's picked up an extra day during the week just to practice this routine. Right now she's sitting at an hour and a half practice on Mondays, 3 hours on Wednesdays and an hour on Thursdays. Oy! Talk about dedication! I just hope one day she has a daughter that dances like she does so she can see how much effort goes into it on everyone else's part as well! One of the dances her studio has placed her in has a required dance convention coming up in September. It's a 2 day event and it's down in Provo. Just to register for the convention is $200 plus we have to pay for a hotel! I feel like I've already paid for a semester at Julliard! (Which, for the record, is where she keeps begging us to send her!)
Speaking of dance, I finally made a decision about Brookelyn and dance class. The only preschool class they offer at the same studio as Sam is either 10-10:45 am or 3:00-3:45 pm on Mondays. Considering I teach until 3 and the studio is a good 30 minutes away, this is not going to work. So, I decided to enroll her at the Cache Valley School of Ballet for at least the fall. Tuition is less for her than it was for Sam. Classes are at 3:45 so it's going to be a bit hairy to get her there, but thanks to Laura I think I've got it figured out. If someone from this end of the valley registers for the preschool class I can talk to them about carpooling and maybe switch Sam over come January. If not, she can stay at the Cache Valley School of Ballet for the school year and then next year she would be in the kindergarten class so it should be later in the day! Oh the drama of having to schedule so many dance lessons! I actually wouldn't even worry about it except for the fact that she's asked me every day for the last six weeks when she starts dance again!
I think Nash is excited to go back to school. He got the teacher he wanted - Mr. Hawkes - who does a lot of science based activities and science is his favorite subject. I think he's pretty excited to see his friends again and get back into the swing of things in Robotics Club. Just don't even ask how we're going to manage scheduling another activity! This child has read 19 books this summer for a total of 4.664 pages. INSANITY! I suppose it's making up for all the years I couldn't get him to read if his life depended on it!
We found a new piano teacher for the kids since Austin is going away to school. They will start with her on the first of September. That gives them about a two week break of no piano lessons before they start back up. Sam's been learning to play Mama Mia this summer. It's sounding really good. She's really getting to be quite good at the piano. Nash hasn't written any more music that he's shown me (he wrote some Batman song with lyrics and music all by himself). I think my kids are more like their father than they even know!
We haven't had much excitement this summer, but the kids are happy and healthy so I guess that's really all that matters! We are looking forward to having new adventures as soon as school starts! Back to school night for Sam is tomorrow and the boys are next Tuesday! Look out 7th, 5th & 2nd grade!
