Time Zips By

I can't believe that it is really fall already.  We have already done two weeks of school, and we started late.  On a normal year, we would be three weeks into school.  Despite that summer isn't quite over on my blog because I have things we did that I still need to write about! I am going to try and get those up here soon.  In the mean time, this is why I haven't had the time.

 It started with going to Bear Lake the week before I had to go back to work.  Because I wasn't used to working, I came home exhausted and didn't want to do anything.  Most of the camping supplies had gotten put away, but not everything.  I had no desire to clean.  The little energy I did have after completing the necessities went to taking care of fruit.  Part of why I don't like being a teacher is that school starts right when all of the produce comes on.  I am exhausted from working and come home to piles of rotting fruit.  We actually got quite a bit of fruit off of our peach tree.  This was our first real harvest.  Last year was our first fruit and we got a grand total of three peaches.  This year we had at least half a bushel. Pretty good for a little tree.  At the end of that first week of work (which was mostly meetings, we didn't have students yet,)  we left to go to Rendezvous.  I wasn't as ready to go as I wanted to be and then it took us three hours to do the hour and a half drive. It was almost 9:00 by the time we got there.   I will do a whole post on Rendezvous with all the exciting details.  We left Sunday afternoon.  Part of the problem with going to Rendezvous is that Thomas' Uncle Bob always come then.  I think this was the first year I have gotten Thomas to go with me since we were married.  (Why was it easier to get him to come when we were dating?) Part of why we came home Sunday instead of Monday was so that he could go visit Bob.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not.  Thomas' mom had been working and was tired, so she wasn't going to stay very long.  We opted to ride with her.  Somehow when we are there we always get sucked into staying longer than we mean to.  As much as I enjoy pinocle, I didn't want to play it until midnight.  OK, it was only about 10:00, but I was trying to get into our new school routine.  Thomas really didn't get home until after midnight.  Monday was Labor Day.  I was going to can my tomatoes, but I decided that they were green enough, and there were enough close to ripe still outside, but not quite ready, that I could wait until the weekend.  The majority of the peaches did have to be done that day.  Isabelle wanted a pie and a fancy candle lit dinner.  We told here we would do it the next day.  We did get everything ready though.  My sister Jennae wanted to do something, and we were supposed to go to Thomas's grandma's for a BBQ.  I really didn't want to go since Tuesday was the first day of school.  I was glad when it got canceled/postponed until Sunday.  We ended up buying fried chicken, making a quick salad and taking it down to Barnes Park.  It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed visiting.  My parents stopped in on thier way home; they were still pulling the trailer and everything.  My brother also came with his daughter.  Tristan loved the ducks.  We had some rolls that he kept wanting to go feed them.   In the evening we just relaxed and tried to prepare mentally for school to start.

Isabelle was so excited for school to start.  She had been asking about it all summer.  The first day, they didn't have class, but they did have a parent meeting.  I of course couldn't go because I was doing my own first day of school.  I made arrangements to meet her teacher the Friday before.  She seemed really nice, and I think that Isabelle will like her.  Thomas took her to the meeting and was in charge of both the kids that day.  That evening as promised, we had a "fancy dinner." Mostly it was like an other dinner, except we dressed up the table and we had peach pie for desert.


Wednesday was her first day. Thomas dropped her off.  The two grandma's slit baby-sitting. When we asked her about it, she said she like school, but she didn't learn anything.  I kind of think she thought she would learn to read that first day.



When I got home from school, we headed up to Snowbasin for my cousin's wedding.  It was at the Needles lodge at the top of mountain.  You had to ride the gondola up.  We had to go just for the experience.  It was pretty amazing.  It makes me want to see it in winter, but I don't think I am a good enough skier to handle Snowbasin. 

View of the Valley

The bathrooms were supper nice.  The counters were marble,

and the toilets were gold plaited

In the Gondola

 
Thursday was supposed to be book club, and I was supposed to be in charge.  We ended up postponing it a week because most people had to go to back to school night.  I was relieved because I didn't know how I was going to get a dessert made and the house clean in time.   Friday I got the tomatoes pureed.  That made things easier on Saturday.  Thomas was supposed to help me make salsa, but he ended up having to work because another employee quit. The think about canning, is that it isn't nearly as hard as you think it is going to be.  It is however time consuming.  I had to cut up the peppers, let the stuff cook, boil the water for the canner, turn everything off and run to the store to buy lids, wait for everything to get back up to temperature, cook, then clean it all up.  It was about 5:00 by the time I was finished.  Of course a lot of that time was waiting.  I do love when the canning is finished.  The bottles look so pretty sitting there.  It gives me a thrill to hear each one pop.  We still need to do applesauce, which may or may not be all I do this year.

Sunday we went up to Huntsville to grandma Toombs.  It was fun, but again we got home later than I would have liked.  Partly because of everything we had going on we were pretty unsuccessful at getting or bedtime routine established.  The second week of school should have gone better, but it didn't really.  By Monday, Tristan had gotten a cold.  It made him kind of crabby.  I am not sure if it is related or not, but he also wouldn't go to bed.  At least he wouldn't go to sleep.  I would take him to bed, tuck him in, and kiss him good-night.  He would smile at me and lay there snuggling his blanket like he was going to go to bed.  Almost as soon as the door was shut however, I could hear him get up and start playing.  It was really cute listening to him talk to himself, but he did it until after ten, three nights in a row.  Thursday was the book club that had gotten postponed from the previous week.  Since it was our fist meeting of the year, we had to discuss our summer book and pick new ones.  The September meeting always takes longer than the others.   (Again I am planning on doing a separate post.  I haven't written about books in a while, and there are a couple I've been meaning to.) Thomas took the kids up to his mom's, and it was almost ten by the time they got home.   On top of all that I could feel myself getting Tristan's cold.  It wasn't bad, and I thought it would be mild.  Halfway through school on Friday however, it hit hard.  I was blowing my nose constantly, sneezing, and generally being miserable.   We were supposed to go clothes shopping, but we spent the evening laying low.  I haven't done much today either.  I am waiting for Thomas to get home from work, and then I will attempt the shopping.   I would really like it if things could be not so crazy for a while.  It is no wonder I can't believe it has been two weeks already. 


A note about pictures:  Apparenly some of the ones I was going to post here are not downloaded yet.  Our Tuesday night dinner and the first day of school are still on the camera along with Rendezvous.  There are also some posts that don't have pictures yet that did get downloaded and hopefully will be added soon  like Lagoon, bowling, and more bear lake. 

Late Nights All Around

I have had some good posts lately.  There was the one about the yard, about Tristan's eating, about Isabelle's potty training, Easter of course (didn't you like the egg hunt pictures), and the progress in the basement.   What! You don't remember any of those!  OK, so that is some of what I would have written about if I had time.  The last two weeks have been crazy busy.  First off all my students turned in their research papers.  It takes me 10-15 minutes to go through each one, so that ends up being around 30 hours of correcting.  That of course is just the research papers and not anything else they have turned in.  I am down to about 40 of them left!  I might finish this week.  They are actually doing testing, which is a great time to get some of it done.  To show how busy we have been, let me tell you about our week. 
On Saturday Thomas was supposed to take pictures of my brother's family.  It was an outdoor photo shoot, and it got postponed until Monday due to rain, so that is how our week started.  We rushed home from work. Thomas was late because of a meeting at work. We took the kids to Grandma's and we went to do the pictures.  On the way home we stopped to pick up some pictures of Isabelle for her spotlight poster at school that was supposed to be done over the weekend, but we forgot to get the pictures printed.  We then we to Grandma's house to get the kids and look at her washing machine, which had been having problems. It didn't seem like a big problem, but it took longer than expected to fix. Plus Castle started and I got sucked in.  We didn't get home until about 10.  Late night for everyone.  
Tuesday was the one day we didn't have anything planned ahead of time; however, the washer was put back together wrong and was leaking.  Back we went to Grandma's house to fiddle with the silly machine.  After an hour or so, the great oracle (otherwise known as the internet) was consulted and they found the offending seal and how it should be installed.  Second late night.  I think that was also the day Husband went to the doctor to get  vaccinations for his upcoming trip. He got stabbed about four times. He complained all day about his sore arm and his Typhoid Fever symptoms.   Apparently they are noting compared to the Yellow Fever he is getting this Monday.
Wednesday  was parent teacher conferences. I had forgotten to tell Thomas about them, and he had forgotten to tell me that he was working a double.  Due to complications with the schedule he had to open and close.  Luckily he was able to come home and pick the kids up and watch them until Grandma got home when he went back to work.  It was about 8 when I got there to pick them up. Third late night for Thomas, normal night for the rest of us.  Normal being sometime after 9:00 but hopefully before 10:00.  Yes that includes the three year old.  She is such a night owl, and the sun being up later is not helping. 
Thursday was Book Club.  This is one of my favorite nights of the month. It is one of the few times I get to go out and socialize. This month's book was called Elegance of the Hedgehog..  It was an interesting book, and we had some interesting discussion; however, I was only about half way through the book.  I always stay later then I intend to because I have so much fun.  This month's book club host is actually Grandma's neighbor, so everyone else had played at Grandma's while I was gone.  By the time I got back to grandma's house, finished visiting there, and went home, it was almost ten.  Another late night.
Friday we had Tristan's 9 month doctor's appointment.  I went straight from work to day care, and from there I went straight to the doctor's office.  We got there right on time.  The receptionist however, could not find us in the computer.  Turns out that our appointment was the day before.  I know that we scheduled the appointment for Friday.  They usually give us a reminder call, but they didn't this time.  There may have been a small scene in the reception area, but we won't go into all that.  Suffice it to say that even though the doctor was not there (camping I think is what they told us) we were able to see his nurse who told us that there aren't any shots at 9 months.  We were also able to weight and measure him.  He is still 0 percentile for height and 5th percentile for weight.  We think he seems huge, but apparently he is still on the bottom of the chart.  That just means he is easier to lug around.  After that we went home and had dinner.  Thomas' uncle is in town, so he went to visit him.  I went to my aunts house to pick some things up that got left behind at Easter.  Then it was home to bed. 
Saturday I actually ran in a 5K.  I got up and rode my bike to the Jr. high were the race was starting.  When I was about half way there I realized I was thirsty.  Luckily they had water bottles they were handing out.  I did not run the race, but I didn't walk the whole thing either.  I would speed walk for a while, then jog a few paces usually passing irritating Jr. high students.  The race went past my house.  Thomas and the kids were in the driveway watching.  It was cute and he said they had a lot of fun. I finished in almost exactly 42 minutes, which was better than expected.  I rode my bike back home and got some snacks.  I started having tunnel vision, my arm went numb.  This was followed by a headache, which lasted all day.  We have decided that I maybe got overheated, but mostly was dehydrated.  This made my other Saturday activities (helping change the oil in my car and a surprise birthday party for my brother in law) less enjoyable.  I was also supposed to go with my husband to go see Uncle Bob again, but I stayed home instead.  I gave the kids their bathes, and we all went to bed.  The end of a very long and busy week.

Did you notice that the first four days involved going to grandma's house. 

Also, Tristan has started crawling.  He generally doesn't go very far.  Today however, he went from the office into his sisters room, where she had left a half eaten piece of chocolate.  needless to say, Tristan has now enjoyed his first chocolate.  I hope that things are better next week. I am going to post this and then go to bed.  The entire family will be in bed and possibly asleep by 9:30! That is amazing.

I  should also be getting some pictures up soon.  Is it too late to put up Easter pictures? I also have some race pictures.

The Help

Having a job where I work with teenagers, I have come to realize that they  have a very limited view of the world.  Pretty much it revolves around them.  If it doesn't directly impact their life it is unimportant.  Anything they don't remember happening was "forever ago."  Olden days means anything from the 70's to the middle ages. I was talking to a couple of girls about Bridge to Terabithia.  They told me it was a "really old book."   I didn't think that it is that old.  I remember when it came out,  in 1987.    It always surprises me when I talk about things I think they should know and they have never heard of it. Things like... Desert Storm.  That was only a couple of years ago, right.  Better yet... the Olympics being in Salt Lake. Most of them don't even remember that, and it really was just a couple of years ago.  About a month ago, I was driving home from work, when I had an epiphany.  Now we all know that the 60's were forever ago.  We are talking ancient times.  (We won't mention that my mom, who I don't think of as old remembers the 60's.) Anyway, I had this thought and I started doing some math in my head while I sat at a red light.  The amount of time from when I was in junior high to the 60's is the same as today's kids are from the 80's.  That just really freaked me out.  My childhood is as ancient history as I always thought the 60's were.  I find it interesting that I can look back now as an adult and say that the 60's really weren't all that long ago.  It is amazing how much has happened and how much our culture has changed in so relatively short a time. 

This ended up being a much longer preface than I intended it to be, but I thought that it went well with the book I just read, which happens to be about... the 60's.

The Help by: Kathryn Stockett.

I first heard about this book from my Mother-in-law.  I think that someone at her work had recommended it.  She told me that I would really like it.  I meant to read it, but just didn't get to it. Then in September, when my book club selects new books, someone suggested this book.  About a third of  the group had read it before, but they were still interested in doing it.  I was excited about reading it. I asked for it for Christmas, but no one got it for me.  I knew there was a waiting list at the library, but I never got around to putting my name down.  I finally ended up going to the store and just buying the book.  At thing point there was only about a week and a half until book club, so I stayed up late several nights to get it done on time.

The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962-1964.  It is about the black women who go into white homes as maids.   It is told in first person from the point of view of two black women and one white woman. The book deals with the different levels of society and what was expected of people in thier social realms.  I really enjoyed the book.  I thought is had some really believable characters, and I felt that she did a good job of incorporating the history into her story.  Some of the history I was familiar with, while other tidbits I didn't know and found very fascinating.  The book does not have many big events, but is more about the day to day life of the characters.  Despite this fact, it was still full of suspense.   I wanted to find out what happened, to know why characters were doing the things they were. At the same time I didn't want to read more because I knew the kinds of things that happened then and I didn't want them to happen to these characters I had come to care for. I found that I was often anxious while reading, with horrible predictions running though my head.  I am glad that I purchased this book.