Whoa! Tons of Stuff

We've crammed more stuff into these past couple weeks than I would've though possible. It is a time of transition for all of us here. Another semester down for me, A's in both my classes. The kids have completed another year at school. And we are gearing up for all our summer activities. But here we go for all the fun we've crammed into the past month or so.

The big one:





DD waiting so patiently for her baptism. She turned eight in December but we decided to wait until Dan came home, then we learned than my sister, Jenny was getting her Master's degree in May so to save my Dad the burden of two trips in a couple months time we pushed it back another couple months. She took it like an angel. The baptism went well. And I even got the chocolate stains out of her dress that it took her all of ten minutes in her dress to put in. The day before her baptism was Jenny's graduation so it was just a super-fun busy family weekend.



I totally forgot how boring college graduations could be until we went to this, with all the kids. However, they can also get really interesting when the Provost conducting the ceremony passes out towards the end. Everyone started paying attention then, and she was alright, I am not heartless.

Earlier in the month, Punx got his Webelos:



That is Punx pinning on the parent pin and that is me in my super-snazzy uniform. Punx is really loving Webelos, getting those pins is very exciting to him. I love seeing him so enthusiastic about scouts. We have the best Webelos leaders, which makes all the difference in the world.

We ended the school year, with all the normal hullabaloo, those awards ceremonies that the kid's school does every quarter and that every grade has their own. That is twelve award ceremonies this year. I miss the first quarter because of my classes so I only went to nine, but eight last year. And we all know how these go, they say the same thing at every single one. That is seventeen times of explaining perfect attendance their particular way, what this award means, what that award is. I could do the whole thing myself now but way faster. (Can anyone tell that I don't like these things? But if I don't go the kids get all sad.) I have finally figured it out though. I sit in the corner and put my book/magazine under the sticky cafeteria table when one of the kids is up front and can therefore see me. It helps.

This year, all the normal crap, I mean achievements. The kids did really well, honor roll, Bug got the award for knowing all the sight words, my kids never get perfect attendance. I am just really glad that they didn't do a kindergarten graduation, I think that really would've put me over the edge. The only things that does bother me about this state is the grading system. The cut-off for an A is 93%, for B is 86%. Punx this year, all four quarters only had two grades that were 88%, all the others were in the 90's but he never had all A honor roll because sometimes his grades were in the low 90's. I think it's weird. I tell the kids if it's in the 90's it's an A in this house. Rant about elementary education over.

Now we move onto summer, yeah, trips to the lake, pool, stream, splash park, what else has water in it, the drinking fountain. We are taking a break from swimming and gymnastics this summer and doing track, just to shake it up. Don't forget the free movie festival. It is really amazing how different I feel about this summer compared to the last two, without Dan here now that he is home. I feel all excited and happy. I feel a little of the freak out feeling but that is just about trying to juggle my classes and keeping them happy. If I have to do it when Dan is home from work, then that is what I'll do. Wow, options and parental help, it's like it will never get old.

Blurbs

I am feeling a little disconnected lately, besides being on the computer for my school work and deleting emails that I don't want to take the time to read, my computer time has been very limited lately. I am so glad that I finished my finals this week and have so much more time. But to start fresh I wanted to put out there all those little things that have been floating around in my brain that I would have posted about in a normal way.

1. We cut off our satellite TV. We are a TV-free household, and by that I mean that we set-up Dan's laptop to the flat screen and watch hulu.com for all the shows I watched before. But the kids watch way less now, which means that I haven't heard them quote Spongebob in weeks. I'm liking that.

2. I lived up to my side of the bargain to not do something crazy to my hair during the deployment so I gave Dan a couple months and then chopped it all off, because what I did to it after he came home wasn't apart of the deal...



3. We are having a fun time with Bug right now. Honestly he is driving me crazy. We have had rain pretty much everyday for two weeks and I think that is a small part of the problem the other part is he has the tendency to think the word "now" means at your earliest convenience if you don't mind. The mornings have been particularly tough. Staying on task isn't something he is terribly interested in, like getting dressed for school.



That would be a pair of his tighty-whiteys on his ceiling fan.

4. I actually have a graduation date. It is hard to trust it, I have been going to school off and on for 12 years, it doesn't seem possible. December 2010. I keep thinking that there has to be something that my adviser forgot about. That is one reason why I am targeting graduation for December so that when I find out that there are classes that he forgot about I still have another semester to get it in before it's time to move. So maybe May 2011? And I had to take on a minor with my history major so I choose Political Science, which was one of the first majors I ever considered so best of both worlds here. My first poli sci class is this summer, I am excited.

5. Punx is recovering really well. His ear is almost all the way healed and his physical restriction will be lifted next week. He is really ready for that one. I will post some before and after ear pics later. I think there is some spoiling going one though. He getting a little more bent than usual when he doesn't get his way. Maybe I overdid it right after the surgery with taking care of him.

6. Dan started with his new unit and is back to normal work hours, boo. The month or so after the deployment when they just have them work a couple hours if they ask them to go in at all was really nice. As with all new jobs, they are working him. But, Dan is one of those love to work guys so he likes it. He'll probably only be with this unit for a couple of months and then he'll get moved again, but we'll see.

Well, that is a good amount. I have a couple of weeks off before the next semester starts and before the kids start their summer, I am going to enjoy it.