It's that Time of Year

Today is the day - Shaelyn goes back to school and starts 3rd grade! Summer
went so quickly. As we prayed together this morning, we talked about all the
things that were going to happen during the summer - my surgery, Chelsea going
to Guatemala, Katelyn leaving for India, vacations, etc... Now they have all happened
and here we are - August 31 - beginning of a new school year.
She's ready - new haircut, new clothes and new lunch box. She's excited
about the teacher she got for this year - she's the same teacher Chelsea
had and loved her. Thursdays will be a fun day every week. Her room has a loft
in it and that will be the day that she can use it for reading time. The other
reason I love Thursdays is because it's her microwave day. Her teacher has a
microwave in her room and there are designated days for the kids to use it.
This makes it so much easier to pack lunches - soup, spaghettio's, ravioli,
pizza - ahh, the luxury of a microwave. I think this should be a great year
for her with lots of fun times. Ready or not, here we come!

Katelyn's College Apartment

We moved Katelyn's things into her apartment on Saturday. She's excited to be in an apartment with 4 other girls. She is in a room with 2 others and down their hall is the other bedroom. She came back home Saturday to celebrate my birthday and go to a family picnic today but headed back out tonight- with classes starting tomorrow. Take a look at some of the pictures I got.




Working on her desk area














The Kitchen














Her bed - ready to finish getting put together















Katelyn and Amanda - one of her roommates
















Here is her apartment building. They share with 3 other rooms

1st day of School Conversation

Shaelyn was talking to me last night about her first day of school. Here's how some of it went;
Shaelyn - Mom, I have a boy in my class who said a naughty word
Me - What was the word?
Shaelyn - It started with an "S"
Me - Really, what was it?
Shaelyn - It begins with "SH"
(I'm starting to wonder how this word fit into the conversation at this point)
Me - can you tell me?
Shaelyn - I don't want to say it but it also means "be quiet"
Me - Oh, he said "shut up"?
Shaelyn - Yes, I don't think I should really be around him anymore

Oh, if my child can only stay so innocent as she grows!

Adios and good-bye

The day has come. I said good-bye to Chelsea and Shaelyn as they headed back to school. (although Chelsea started already last Thursday) Later this morning (or afternoon - depending when Katelyn gets up), I'll be going back to college with her to help her move back in. I don't know if you can tell by this picture what a dreary day it is. Shaelyn was out for the bus at 8:15 and it was still pretty dark. I took this around 9:15 and it's lighter out but still depressingly bleak and dreary.
All of our snow has melted (boo hoo) and it's rainy. It's supposed to get up to 60 degrees today. I'll take a bright, blue-sky winter day with snow anytime over a warm, yucky day like today. Oh well, the kids are back to school which is a good thing. Schedules have started again and we're heading back into school-mode routine!
I'm ready to start accomplishing more now that we're back to normal.