The Rest of the Week

The girls went to school.  We got back into our before school scripture reading routine.  This year to go along with Seminary we are reading the Doctrine and Covenants.  Kris left us on Thursday :(.  So we had Chinese food and chocolate cake!  Good luck with everything Kris!

 

While she was here, we worked hard on painting the kitchen.  We learned the difference between latex and oil based paints the hard way.

Bella is FINALLY over the flu.  The docs said it would be about 6 weeks before her lungs recovered.  And they were right.  We are starting to do 1 hour off twice a day – and she is LOVING it!!  We try to optimize her off vent time.  On Wednesday she started having some green secretions so she is back on antibiotics – here’s hoping that doesn’t become anything.  We are loving having her off and to ourselves!

Sammi is home schooling this year, so you’ll see lots of fun pictures of her.  We are learning about explorers right now.  This week we studied about the different reasons for exploration and then life as a sailor.  She learned about famous nautical knots and we dried some apples.  In literature she is reading Carry On, Mr. Bowditch which is full of sailing references – great story.  In Botany we talked about taxonomy – so her shoe sorting became our visual aid there.  School for her is off to a great start!

         

Joy got to go to Meet the Teacher at her school.  That starts this coming Wednesday!  Can’t believe that!

            

What a bad picture! 

This is the girls on Friday after the first week of school.  Sammi had a good week.  Everyone else was really tired.  Only 172 more school days to go till summer break :)

Think I am biased towards home schooling?  Then you would be right!

First Day of School

I couldn’t wait till Sunday to post.  I think it was a good day for everyone.

Lizzy was excited.  One of her teachers used to teach Becca.  Liz was confident and only slightly nervous.  She said it was a busy and good day.  Jessi surprised me.  When I left her in her room, I was afraid she was going to hyperventilate.  Poor thing – she was so nervous.  At the end of the day, she said it was great!  Of her three teachers, one had Becca.  I dropped Becca off and watched her walked away with a friend.  I wished I had my camera with me, but I didn’t.  How big she has gotten.  After school, she told us all about her classes.  If she surfaces for air this year, I will be surprised.  She has a tough load, but I know she will succeed.  When I asked Sammi about her day during supper tonight, she replied that she had a lot of fun!  And she was totally surprised!  Not sure how to take that one.  :)  But she was asking for extra lessons in history for tomorrow, so something is going well.

The first day of school is so interesting to me.  There is so much nervous excitement.  New clothes, new supplies, new backpack.  But then the routine slips in and the newness wears off.  I noticed something in Young Woman on Sunday.  In June no one could wait for school to be out.  In August no one can wait for school to start.  What does that say about us?  :)

Have a great year girls!  I love you!

What a Week…and a few thousand miles

Becca has been working on Personal Progress.  She had to make a menu and cook the food for two weeks (yeah for me!).  And a note to self – when all you are going to do is touch ups and not paint the whole bathroom, remember to make sure you have the right paint can.  Otherwise you might do this and touch up with the wrong color :)

Monday Jason, Becca, Kris, and Jacob went out to an Astros Game – fun! 

Becca worked on getting ready for school, including shopping and a hair cut!  She looks super cute!

We converted Joy’s bed into a big girl bed.  She is such a stinker!

Then Wednesday Bella and I went downtown for an appointment.  We are working on a little fine tuning with her fluids.  She had a great week otherwise!

With the girls in Utah, we were doing lots of checks on the stand by list for Continental.  It was a very busy week for Continental.  After the last flight on Wednesday Jason and I were starting to get really nervous.  We were missing our babies terribly.  Although they were having fun, they didn’t sound very good on the phone.  Our hearts needed them home.  We started to look at our possible solutions to get them home by Monday when school starts.  Buying a ticket was too expensive – it was too last minute – and we were limited because they are unaccompanied minors.  In the end we decided to drive there in a rented car and drive back – so 3500 miles in 72 hours.  I’m very glad we did.

I, personally, have been about to hit my stress max just with life in general.  About 10 hours into our trip, I started to totally relax.  Bella was doing well – she had a good set of nurses for those three days.  The nurse was texting me pictures and I was calling every three hours.  Jason and I had time to talk and just be alone together – not something we had had much lately.  Life with a babe like Bella can be very stressed, very wonderful, but very stressful.  And I love road trips.  Airports stress me out, but the open road – that I love.  I am amazed at how big this country is – and the variety, from desert and nothing to breathtaking mountain vistas.  I love a nice long road trip.  I so hope an RV is in my future!

(Just as an aside – if you are ever traveling through Laramie, Wyoming and it’s dinnertime, we HIGHLY recommend Anong’s Thai Restaurant.  There is only one word, YUM!)

 

 

We got into SLC at 11:38PM and I got to hold my girls again.  This was good for my heart.

The girls told us all about their wonderful time in SLC.  Jessi adores Utah.  She so prefers the climate there to here.  They got to meet Grandpa and Grandma while they were there and have dinner with them. 

 

   

We crashed at Linda’s that night.  In the morning we were up early.  We needed to be on the road, but since we were here we went and saw a few things.  We got to see Ben’s grave marker.   We got to meet Jaxson!!!  (so cool!)  I got to see the Conference Center and then Jason and I took pictures at the temple – the same thing a million other new couples were doing.  December will be 18 years since we were one of those young and naive couples – wow!

We hopped back in the car and drove home.  3500 miles in 72 hours.  I am so happy to have all 8 of us under one roof  again.

Kris took care of Bec, Liz and Joy while we were gone.  They swam and played.  Lizzy got to meet her new teachers and go to a birthday party.  Becca went to Freshmen Orchestra Orientation and a full Klein High School orchestra rehearsal.      One of our nurses texted me that she wanted to take Becca out shopping on Saturday.  It was tax free weekend and she and her two daughters are quite the shoppers.  Let’s just say Becca had a blast and is set for the next school year!  :)

When I look at it, things aligned perfectly for us to be able to get away.  Kris was here.  Nurses I trusted were here.  Bella was doing well.  I’m just grateful.

The car shot – whenever we rent a car, Jason likes a picture of it.  The Ford Fusion.