August Memories

Last week was fun. Pretty much every day, Laena wanted to go on a date, and Aleia wanted to have a sleep over. Yeesh. Charlie started school on Thursday, Physics Class, so the school year is almost in full swing! Next week Jeffy starts Kindergarten. I don't know weather to cheer or sob. . .

Last Monday night most of us went out to Shawn and Michelle's house, (Charlie's sister), so Charlie could help them with their computer. He does that from time to time, troubleshooting etc. . They actually had him set up their current system. What a cool guy is my husband!  : )

Tuesday Laena had a date with Bryce, from work. . and then Friday it was a movie with some guy, a friend of hers named Didi 'the Mexican'. (go figure) She seemed to have a good time. He's a chess nerd, if you can believe it. : ) Pretty nice, reasonable young men, the 2 of them. We'll see what happens. . . Last week Laena had me take her over to Jordan Landing shopping center, and taxi her around so that she could get a bunch of job applications. She put in her 2 weeks notice at the Fun Center on Saturday. She's been thinking about Jamba Juice. . or maybe Joe's Crab Shack, as possible places of employment. : ) I think either one of them would be fun! I love Jordan Landing! It's my favorite little shopping slice of Heaven!  : ) Also, Laena's thinking about trying out for Jordan Youth Symphony. . Ope! Scratch that. . Jordan Symphony Orchestra, with the high school, here in a couple of weeks. Should be fun! She really loves that cello!

Clint worked about every other day at Pizza Hut. Saturday he wanted to buy a poker table over at our neighbor's fantasmagorical yard sale. Yeah. I said no. : ) Clint's starting the Tech Center thing this semester, riding the bus over to Sandy in the mornings, to learn more about all that technical stuff that I simply do not understand. . He's supposed to be learning about 3D Computer Animation, whatever that means. But if it has anything to do with drawing on the computer, which he does -every chance he gets- and which he is pretty darn good at, he should really enjoy himself. He also wanted to sign up for welding, and engineering. He loves to shape things, mostly swords and super hero costumes, out of metal, or some similar material. . . Lately, Clint's been spending a lot of time with Richard Leetham, the kid across the street. . . And also Morgan Burr, when he's in town. . The Burrs are in the process of moving down to the Fillmore area. Clinton spent the night over there Saturday, with Morgan and Kalin, in their pop-up camper. : ) Good thing we have chuch at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. . .

Eric got his Personal Management merit badge all wrapped up, all by himself, last Wednesday! He's self motivated apparently! I'm excited about that. But then again, Eric always is a pretty good kid, especially when it comes to homework and that sort of thing. He really likes structure. He's thinking about joining up with the cross country team over at the high school this fall. . . It'll keep him in shape for track in the Spring!  : ) Eric has diligently saved up his money, from his weekend job at the theater, and took great pride in buying some school things for himself on our various shopping trips! So cute! What a good kid! Ericky's our buff little ray 'o sunshine!  : ) He's excited to take Wildlife Biology this year! And Mythology, and Zoology. . . Should be fun!

Tommy has started the 8th grade, walks right over every morning, well, at least the last 2 anyway, and seems to love it! The middle school is just a couple of blocks from our house. It's fun to watch him head off toward the mountains and the sunrise in the morning. . Normally that boy won't get out of bed until at least 10:30 am. Believe it or not, 10:30 is an early morning for him. : ) But school is back in session NOW, Baby!  HA ha ha ha ha! Permit me an eville chuckle. . . ; ) Tommy is excited about art class, and keyboarding. I wish he's stuck with cello, though. . Maybe next year. . . Yesterday morning, when we woke him up for school, I started out with the ever popular "Good morning, Sunshine!" He responded quickly with a very cute "Good Night, Moon!" before he rolled over and went back to snoring. : ) Ain't he cute!

Yesterday Laena's Senior Pictures showed up, via the blasted Box Man, a full 2 and half weeks early! We were excited, but a little taken aback, and a little unprepared, since she had ordered almost the most expensive package, and was planning on paying for a lot of the pictures with her check from the Fun Center, which she won't actually have for a week or so. . . Eek! Oh, but I was SO excited to play around with them, to print them out, and tweak 'em on Picasa! Ah yes! Picasa! My home away from Heaven! Love it, love it, love it!  : ) Mama Mia, but that was fun, staying up way too late, trying different things with all those cute photos of my baby girl! Yeah Baby! And naturally yesterday, on the first day of school, I had to humiliate all of our children by taking lots of '1st Day of School' photos of them. . . It's the job of a Mama! I mean, if I didn't do it, who would? (Innocently, head tilted, pointer finger resting on my chin. . ) Hee hee hee. (Sly grin)

Aleia had her first day of third grade yesterday. She was pretty nervous, but of course I waited with her, in the line outside of 'the 3rd grade doors', until they were called in to the school. Sigh. We got to meet her teacher, Miss Royball, who seems to be fantastic with kids, before we left. Lea had fun at school, but she's a little annoyed that most of her friends from last year are in the other 3rd grade class. . . However, she dutifully did her homework last night, reading for 20 minutes, and hounding me about yet another mountain of paper work. . . I've gotten pretty good at this; I usually throw half of it away. . This morning, Aleia asked me if I'd filled out the papers, 'cause she had to bring them to school! Also, we were supposed to sign something verifying that she had done her reading. I was puzzled by this, as I had specifically asked her about this the night before, and she had specifically told me that 'No, she didn't need us to sign anything about the reading.' I reminded her of this, and she said, with complete confidence "Oh. Well, I meant yes." Huh? As if that makes it all better! How would that go over in the adult world, I wonder. . ? (Amused chuckle, accompanied with a fond shake of the head.) Ah, to be young again. . . When, if you didn't like the game, you could just change the rules. . .  ; )

Jeffy's still going back and forth about the Kindergarten thing. One day he's all excited, and the next he says he doesn't want to go, especially if they're not gonna let him play on the big playground with Evan. Evan and Jeffy get along great, but although Evan is pretty short for his age, he is in fact 9 years old. . . Jeffy's 3 and a half years younger. Sigh again. It gets complicated when your friends turn out to be girls. . . or big kids. Poor little guy. I guess it's all part of growing up. . . Today Jefferson has stated again that he misses Lea. The very same thing that he said when she was halfway through Preschool. . . his first words, actually. "I miss Aya." He couldn't say his "L's" quite yet. . . Aleia and Jeffy have been best buds since he was born. Except now that she's getting a little bit older, she's starting to want 'girl time', and naturally Jeffy has to be excluded from that, part of the time. I feel for the little guy, but he's pretty resilient, and ends up being okay. A year or 2 ago, however, it was awful. Every time she'd go over to a friend's house, he'd cry for about 45 minutes, or until she got back. Not a pleasant experience, not a whole bunch of fun. But NOW, Jeffy's going to meet his Kindergarten teacher! Tomorrow at . . . guess when? Ten-thirty! :) Yay! Life marches on. . . It'll be okay.

Binky got his picture taken last night! Charlie and I, (And it was actually Charlie's idea! Can you believe it?!) took him over to Target and watched, mildly dumbfounded, as he held still and cooperated with the photographer. I was struck completely dumb, Charlie chuckled every once in a while. What a fun time we had! And such cute pix! : ) I am in so much trouble! I will never be able to buy just one. . . Ha ha ha! Whoever came up with such a ridiculous concept . . clearly never had any children! Ha ha ha ha ha! ; ) Mama, I can't wait till we get to pick them up! Yeee hee hee hee hee! My sweet little Binky is almost 2 years old! I just can't believe it! How the time does fly. . . Sigh. He's learning new words every day, and seems to have figured out how to mimic our sounds and syllables. Wow. Lincoln Tanner Mason. . . is here. : )

Sunday we had fun with the little kids in Primary, (when we weren't battling our hysterical 22-month-old baby), teaching them songs for our program, which is coming up in just about a month. Next week I get to do Singing Time AND Sharing Time. We're considering an Olympic theme. . . where grownups 'judge' the children on their singing abilities. : ) With plenty of leeway and second chances, of course. : ) I just. . . can't wait!