Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

We survived summer vacation. Woo! Actually, Anna had a pretty good summer. Alyssa, on the other hand, contracted a serious case of boredom. She also had the munchies like crazy, and grew over an inch since April. Woah! The girls both had end-of-summer swim parties for church, but I was only able to make it to the primary activity. I purposefully did not wear my swimsuit so as to encourage Alyssa to have some fun on her own, which she did - kind of. Actually, she just sweet talked other adults into helping her swim around. But I guess that's okay. In honor of Back To School, we bought Anna an early birthday present - a desk for her to do her homework on. She was almost happy-tears excited. This morning we had a pretty easy time of things. I've been getting up at 6:15 all summer so I can get in some outside chores and do some writing before I buckle down at the day job. Since the girls are both at schools that start on the same, later schedule, that was plenty early for Anna and ...

It's finally here! The girls are gone! The house is quiet! School year 09/10 has begun! The girls got up pleasantly and dressed, and then sat down for a nutritious breakfast of toast and fruit. Alyssa was more interested in playing Lite-Brite. Then it was time for pictures. Both girls are just getting so big. Yeah, it's cliche, but it's true! Notice the pre-dawn glow in the background. We are so jealous of all the back to school pictures where the sun is up high enough to cast shadows. The bus garage said Alyssa's bus would arrive between 6:45 and 6:50, so she and I went outside to wait. And wait. And wait. Alyssa made the most of her waiting time by starting a rousing game of "Follow Me." After a number of cement trucks, diesel pickups, and full size busses caused false alarms, Alyssa's bus finally arrived at 7:10. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Anna spent the morning watching Pokemon on TV. She was excited when she learned her bus would arrive after 8:0...

We are now days away from the new school year, so shopping for school supplies has become a necessity. Based on last year's experience, I knew that I did not want to take both girls at the same time. No way! Fortunately, tonight Anna has a sleepover at a friend's house, so it was the perfect opportunity to get our fifth-grader stocked up. We headed out to Wal-Mart, and discovered very quickly that the big blue cardboard bins they set up in the aisle and filled with school supplies were no longer full. In fact, most of them were empty. For every item we found on our list, there were two we didn't find. Fortunately, I know that there are other places in the store where school and office supplies can be found, so after a little bit of investigating and a few creative substitutions we were able to get all but two things on our list. One item we still need to get is a pack of red pens. The other item is something that, based on the description, I have no idea what it is. But I ...

We've been trying as a family to ride bikes more now that Kara is doing so well. However, these bike rides have all been just little out-and-back excursions. Until yesterday. Alyssa and I took the bikes and rode to her school. It's about 1.5 miles away, so not terribly far. And we can take back streets to get there, so we don't have to drive on the main road. I remembered the route as being mostly downhill on the way, and mostly uphill on the way back, but last night it seemed to be pretty evenly split. However, the uphill sections going to the school are much steeper, so I had to work a little extra hard on the way. I even had to resort to the granniest of granny gears on the hill leading to the school itself. Now if I could just get her to pedal! The "party" was a meeting with pizza. The kids went into the gym to play, and Alyssa decided that was WAY too much mayhem for her, so she stayed in the meeting part with me. Unfortunately, they didn't serve the pizz...

So here we are, in the fourth week of the school year. Less than a month, and my how things have changed. During the first week of school, everyone was up and going as soon as the alarms sounded. I'd lay Alyssa's clothes out the night before, and she'd put them on all by herself. Kara and I practically had to arm wrestle to see who would make the girl's lunch. Fast forward to this morning. Alyssa would not get out of bed, and I had to get her dressed while she lay there crying about wanting to stay home. I made strawberry banana smoothies for breakfast (usually a favorite) and she took maybe 3 sucks on her straw. The one big surprise has been Anna. She's been getting up and getting dressed and even showering without (much) complaining, and usually before Alyssa is up - even though her bus comes an hour later. Hopefully this is just a slump we can get worked out of.

We survived the first day of school (and at this point, at least for Alyssa, the second day). The morning routine started a little later than usual, due to a combination of Kara being here to help and my desire to begin exercising in the morning, which postpones the daily shower by a few hours. Both girls were up and ready to go. We let them sleep on the bedroll in our room, which they see as a big treat. Actually, they're starting to see it as a God-given right, so we may have to work on that a bit. As a special back-to-school breakfast treat, we made strawberry muffins Sunday afternoon. Too many strawberries caused them to fall flat, but they taste very good. Kara and I tag-teamed Alyssa, helping her get dressed (though this year she's doing everything but her shirt by herself), doing her hair, and getting her lunch packed. She was very excited about her bus coming again. Anna decided to get up at the same time as everyone else, even though her bus comes an hour later this ye...

After more than a week of frequent rain, we've had a few sunny days. As a result, the mowers have been running all day along the street. Mine included. Since I hadn't mowed out back since June, the need was acute. Although, to be honest, a long dry spell this summer greatly reduced yard care urgency. This dry spell now appears to be over. So, with a bit of lawn mowing effort I have managed to turn myself into a bundle of achy stiffness. We'll see how much of this is age, and how much is the Lyme treatment. The doctor yesterday told me to take a month off from my antibiotics. It's only been a day, and I think I'm already starting to feel some improvement. We'll see. Anna's Lyme test came back, and while the results weren't as overwhelmingly positive as mine, they are still pretty clearly so. We've decided not to start her on antibiotics until next month, when the school year is well underway. The guinea pigs are still doing fine. Anna is too busy taki...

Not to slight the schools in the town where we used to live, but we have been very pleased with the education our girls have been getting since we moved her to Texas. I fear that may change this school year. Tonight was Meet and Greet at Alyssa's school, and New Student Orientation at Anna's new school. Two very different experiences. We went to Alyssa's school, and met her teachers. They seem very nice, and we got the few questions we had answered quickly and easily. We then came home for a quick dinner and tire change (and accompanying shower), then went to Anna's school for the orientation. This did not go so well. First off, the "orientation" was a Powerpoint presentation in the cafeteria to an overflow, standing-room only crowd. We couldn't hear very well, but the little bit we did hear was all information that would have been better presented in a series of handouts. That was it. No teachers. No answers to pressing questions. We came out with more qu...

Sunday afternoon we went to an open house for Alyssa's new school, McCall Elementary. I love the tile on the wall - very stylish and durable. Alyssa constantly asked to go to "PE" so we found the gym. It's pretty nice, with a soft, rubberized floor. This is Alyssa with her Functional Academics teacher, Mrs. Mraz. We'll find out who her mainstream 4th grade teacher is Thursday at Meet the Teacher. And of course, no elementary school is complete without a fun and exciting playground.