3rd week of school

Friday, August 25, 2006

Long week! They keep getting longer!

*Saturday we went to see our friend Steve T. get married. We were thrilled for him. But we had somewhere else to be so we had to leave out fast and I didn't get a picture :(. But anyway, was great to see him getting happily married.

*Tanner spent the day at grandparents house with Brooke for her last day in town on Saturday. Mom took them and Kyle and Tyler to the Mexican restaurant also. Blake was at his moms I think. Rusty and I were at the warehouse rehearsal all afternoon, which still seems to be going ok.

*Sunday Rusty became determined to teach Tanner to ride a bicycle. He decided that the bike was too small. So he took Tanner to the store and bought him a brand new one that was a bit bigger. Rusty also bought HIMSELF a bicycle. lol. We spent many hours on Sunday in the heat of the day TRYING to teach Tanner to ride. Tanner was frustrated very quickly, throwing little fits, and it all turned into a battle of wills between father and son that is still going on TODAY. He tried a long time, cried a few times, got in trouble for throwing the bike down, etc. He wanted the training wheels on it, but the new bike has no place for them. By the end of the day Sunday, he was back on the OLD bike, with the training wheels on it. But on Wednesday, Rusty told him he was no longer allowed to ride the old bike, the he MUST ride the new bike or ELSE. So I guess this weekend we'll get back out there and try to get him riding. I'm hoping for a miracle that he will learn this weekend really fast and we'll be finished. Here he is with the new bike, and Rusty and Tyler with the new big bike also.

























*After the bicycle drama, Rusty and Tanner made peace and ended up playing some drums together. Kind of loud. But I did take a picture of that so thought I would mention it. lol
















*Went to the Open House at the High School on Monday night. It was such a pleasant experience. At the Jr. High, I always got the feeling that the teachers there were just so no-nonsense and serious about everything. Seemed like all they had to say was what they would do if your kid was bad, etc. But at the high school everything was so upbeat and the teachers talked about how much they enjoyed the kids and stuff. At the Jr. High Open House I always felt the teachers were looking at me as if my kid was one of the bad ones, and sometimes they would even take me to the side to tell me what he had done in class or what he needed to do to improve. But at the high school, I felt the teachers were looking at me as if my kid was awesome, and that they really truly liked him. I got to see several of them interact with Tyler and you could tell they really liked him and thought highly of him. It was great! They joked around with him while we were there, or they said something positive about him. I really enjoyed it of course.

*Had to pick Tyler up from school early Monday because he was sick. And boy was he. Had a terrible cold and breathing badly. Took him to the doctor TUesday and sure enough he had "walking" pneumonia they said. Doctor fixed him up with some good meds though and by Wednesday evening he was 75% better already. Funny enough......our usual doctor was not in so I saw the new doctor in the clinic. It ended up being a guy I was friends with in high school who was in the high school band with me. We had a nice visit, and he got to feel really old seeing me with a 14 year old son lol.

*We watched the movie Silent Hill Tuesday night, then again on Wednesday night with Dale. We played the video game of it about 2 years ago, so that made the movie fun. We also watched the movie RV, which was ok.

* Oh yeah. Guess whose house has ANOTHER LIMB on it.

Happened Tuesday with a drop of rain we got. The good news is that it is not a very big thick limb. The bad news is that this one actually IS on the house, yet still semi-attached to the tree. ARRRGGGHHHH. Speaking of limbs, our tree guy finally showed up on Thursday - 12 days late. lol. Had to tell him I"d already had it taken care of, and I'd let him know if we decide to use him for this small one.

*Thursday Keith came by for a visit, Ken and Connor came by for a visit, Mickey came by to visit and help move some speakers, then Steve T. asked us to come over and help him move a stove and we got to visit with him and his new wife and kid for a bit. Was a very social day lol.

*Friday (today) I got served a summons for court over a doctor bill that I've been PAYING on every single month!!!! So I spent my afternoon raising cane at the collection company. I only owed 81 more dollars so I just paid that, got them to give me a receipt that says "paid in full", and got them to swear that the court thing was dropped. Yes, I know, they will probably forget to drop it. But I have my reciepts and all the cancelled checks.

Until next week...............

2nd week of school

Highlights this week:

*Danny did come to town last weekend for more relic hunting, was great visiting with him again.

*Did the first warehouse practice, it was decent I think.

*Took Tanner, Brooke, and Drew to the "back to school" party at the church on Saturday night. They had jumping castles and snow cones and face painting and stuff.

*Sunday Tyler got baptized. It was pretty cool. Nowadays you can hoot and holler for people when they get baptized. It really was a proud moment. Then, poetically, as soon as his baptism was finished, a rainbow appeared in the sky right above us. It was really neat.

*Tyler is still loving high school. And he even tells me about his day when I ask about it now, and rarely gets irritated about me asking. Isn't it just totally fun watching your children discover the world???? At every age for that matter. Thursday night was "Meet the Gators" night at the high school. All the football players line up on the field to be introduced along with their parents. We took Caley with us too.
Tanner decided Tuesday afternoon that he finally wants to learn how to ride a bicycle. He's had 2 or 3 bicycles in his life but never has learned to ride one. And has never even WANTED to. He told Papaw once, "I'm just a walking kinda guy". But he became very adamant, and suddenly so, about learning to ride one. He pulled up his biggest rusty old bike from the back yard (which is still too little) and talked Rusty into putting some of Drew's old training wheels on it. He has practiced every afternoon with the training wheels. He does not want to take them off, even though we tell him as old as he is he'll probably learn real fast to ride without them. Anyway, we'll see how long it takes him to learn to ride.
*Rusty and I had a 2 day argument over the tuning up/tuning down of musical instruments. I never knew that the guitar is such a limited instrument. I think I always thought of it as having near the range of a piano for some reason.
*Oh yeah......the limb. I made an insurance claim on it. Late Friday night, the limb fell the rest of the way off - but STILL did not hit the house. (We must be living right.) So by the time the insurance adjuster came on Saturday (we were not home when he came), the limb was DOWN, and NOT on the roof. It killed our swing, but no visible damage to the roof. So I'm now wondering if it looked like I lied to him, saying the limb was touching the roof and then he sees it on the ground. I don't know. I still have not heard from the insurance company on the claim yet. I did end up paying Dale to chop it up and throw it in the woods on Monday though. So now I can rest peacefully.
*Work is going well. My old boss visited us at work this week, haven't seen him in nearly 2 years. I enjoyed his shock at seeing me, I must say lol. He made a big to-do over my weight loss. Most people are so used to it now I don't get that reaction very often anymore so it's nice when I do lol.
*I tried "pilates". It hurts.

1st week of school

Well, our first week of school has kind of been overshadowed by this:

Happened Thursday when it rained all day, while we were all at work/school. Not even a big storm. And it's the remainder of the same limb that hit the house last year during Katrina. Anyway. It appears to have hit the house, slid off, and is now dangling and halfway resting on our dog runner line. It doesn't look like there is any real damage to the house, but I'm hoping that the adjuster thinks that it looks like there might be some damage. And I'm hoping that the little bit of the limb that is still touching the house will be enough for the insurance people to say they need to pay to have the limb removed before it continues falling and damages the house. I have the tree cutting guy coming this evening to estimate. Stuff like this just stresses me out so bad! I obsess over it until it's fixed! Drives Rusty nuts! But I can't stand something to not be as it should be lol. ARGH. I will think of nothing else til it's fixed.

Anyway.......School started Tuesday and so far so good. Tyler is liking high school and has stated how he is going to try really hard to do well this year because he himself wants to - I hope that lasts. I have committed myself to teaching him responsibility and organization this year because he has zero skills there. Tyler is riding the bus from the high school to my school and gets there just as I am ready to go, so that's working out well. He threw a fit about having to ride the bus. But after the first day he found out it was kinda fun after all and there's some cute girl on the bus too or something. The first day he got off the bus at my school, the whole faculty was outside as he got off the bus and everyone just threw a fit over him. How much he's grown, how they didn't even recognize him, how handsome he is, how charming he is, etc. I beamed with pride of course. I'm sure he did too lol. Tanner is in a class of 29 children and has had a little difficulty adjusting to the new teacher, new room, tons of kids, and new routine. He doesn't do well with change. But he's doing really well with it now. I have had a good week of school myself - now that National Board is over with I'm trying to re-teach myself to enjoy my job again lol.

Tanner is still treating this new stuffed animal like a person. He wanted me to get Papaw to babysit the dog while he was at school. He wanted to take it to SCHOOL for that matter. I finally got him to agree to leave it on the bed watching TV. He got upset when Rusty made him leave it in the car the other day while we went in Walmart. I was starting to worry about him. But the last couple of days he has not been so bad about it.

Other small highlights of the week:
*Called Dad last night to wish him happy 55th.
*Tried to learn a couple of songs to play in the new band thing. Everyone thinks I'm nuts cuz I have to write down everything that I figure out. I think they are nuts cuz they don't.
*Caley's mom let her move back with Ken so we get to have her around all the time - we're so happy! She's in the same school as Tyler and he's loving getting to keep his best buddy nearby.
*Drew finally is back around. Don't know where he was, but he's back in full force - til 11pm the last 2 nights lol. All feels normal now.

NOw, for the coming weekend and week:
Tyler is going to Blake's spend the night birthday party tomorrow night, and Tanner is going to the back to school celebration at church. Tyler is getting baptized Sunday evening. I wonder if it's "uncool" to take pictures at a baptism? It probably is. We're doing a band practice thingy Saturday morning. Then back to work/school for the 2nd week.

Until next week.....

1st week of August

I didn't post last week. All I can say is that I completely fizzled out in that last week of my summer. I didn't do anything I planned to do like paint Tyler's room and so on. I didn't do SQUAT. I sat in the chair and watched Judge Judy and all those other judges, and Dr. Phil and Oprah. That's it. And I don't even regret it.
Now, moving on to this week - it went by like lightning. I went back to work and for once I think I actually got everything ready enough to start school next week. I'm usually never ready on time. Tanner stayed with Papaw and Brooke, Tyler slept til I got home pretty much lol. I'll just sum up the week:

* Took Tyler to 9th grade orientation and got his locker and stuff.
* We went to Keith's house to swim last Sunday.
* We met with Trip and Lisa about possible new plans for making a band.
* Have not seen Drew ALL week - kinda odd after having him here nonstop for a week and a half.
* I received recognition at the district's opening convocation for achieving National Board Certification. I got my special yellow badge that says "master teacher" and everything lol.
* Tyler leaves this afternoon for a youth "mystery trip" and gets back tomorrow.
* Mom took Tanner and Brooke to the build-a-bear workshop where they made their own stuffed animals - Tanner believes that his is alive, needs to eat, needs to sleep, and needs a bath. And he simply can not BELIEVE Tyler could leave on a church trip the very first day that this new family member is here.
* Mom cooked Sunday dinner for us all last Sunday. Chris and family were there also, it was really nice having us all together. And she made okra too. lol
* We did our monthly restaurant thing Monday night, went to Ryan's and had a great time.

Surely more has happened than that and I'm leaving it out. It's hard to cover 2 whole weeks at once lol. But here is at least one picture - of Tanner and "Ty", our new family member.