A very Katrina-y day

Katrina came to the library with me today, because every day is "bring your daughter to work" day when you work at the library! She picked a good day to come - there was no drama, and she got lots of space to herself and lots of quiet. She started out drawing and writing articles for her magazine, and then eventually grabbed "Divergent" off the shelf and spent the rest of the time reading. I asked her if she liked coming with me because it was quiet or because she got to spend time with me or because it was just fun to come to the library, and she said, "All of the above." But i suspect that "because it's quiet" is a pretty big percentage of the reason.

And then Katrina and i went to "Once Upon a Child" (a store where they sell nice used clothes) because they were having a giant sale and she needed shorts, and let me tell you.... Finding cute and also modest clothes that actually fit a 13-year-old is unreasonably hard. Nobody should be wearing shorts that are that short, especially children. And i will never understand why clothing stores can't all have a conversation and be like, "Okay, THIS is what we're going to call size 12, and THAT will be size 14. Sound good? Okay, let's ALL DO THAT THEN." That would make life a lot easier.

A few days ago, Katrina and Zane brought my giant Harry Potter Lego castle upstairs and were all, "Um...if we promise to be really careful, could we make this?" Zane lasted approximately long enough to build one room, and then Katrina spent the next couple of days working on it off and on, and today she finished it, and it is now sitting on top of the bookcase, being all cool.

Katrina is thirteen!!!

As of today, Katrina is a teenager.

In some ways, her teenager-ness is easy to believe. She wants to check her email regularly to email silliness to friends. Finally getting to join Facebook was probably the thing she was most looking forward to about her birthday. She's as tall as Beth. The clothes she chooses are decidedly more grown up than they were a year or two ago.

She's not your stereotypical obnoxious teenager, though. She loves her brothers. She isn't bratty or argumentative or self-absorbed. She remains one of the sweetest, most generous, and kindest people i know. We absolutely hit the jackpot when we got this girl as our daughter.

My favorite thing about my kids getting older is getting to have conversations with them, and Katrina is such a fun person to talk to. She's smart and thoughtful and can completely make me laugh. She's cares deeply about relationships, and she goes out of her way to build and maintain her relationships with everyone she loves, from friends to siblings to me and Juanito. I don't think she even realizes that she's doing it, but she is just amazingly talented at knowing exactly how other people best relate. She plays games with Zane, cuddles and talks with me, makes crazy movies with Houston, emails with friends, leaves little notes for people, makes or buys little presents for friends at school. She lets me do a photo shoot of her for her birthday every year without complaining even once. If i weren't already her mom, i would absolutely want to be Katrina's friend.

Thirteen years is a long time. It's a lot of growing and changing. And in the past thirteen years, Katrina has obviously changed a ton. She's no longer wearing diapers, for one thing. But i can look at pictures and remember what she was like already when she was really little - two and three - and say that her personality? It hasn't changed. She's been awesome all along.

More birthday pictures are here.

2017, so far.

We're almost a month and a half into 2017, and i haven't blogged since the new year. I keep wanting to, but then i'm all unsure of what to post. I could just post "this is what my family did today," and honestly, that's maybe fine and probably what i'll end up doing. But that feels somewhat dishonest to what i feel like is actually going on, because so much of my brain is full of politics and the things happening in our country right now. 

I read an article by Andrew Sullivan yesterday, and this paragraph perfectly sums up how i'm feeling: 

One of the great achievements of free society in a stable democracy is that many people, for much of the time, need not think about politics at all. The president of a free country may dominate the news cycle many days — but he is not omnipresent — and because we live under the rule of law, we can afford to turn the news off at times. A free society means being free of those who rule over you — to do the things you care about, your passions, your pastimes, your loves — to exult in that blessed space where politics doesn’t intervene. In that sense, it seems to me, we already live in a country with markedly less freedom than we did a month ago. It’s less like living in a democracy than being a child trapped in a house where there is an abusive and unpredictable father, who will brook no reason, respect no counter-argument, admit no error, and always, always up the ante until catastrophe inevitably strikes.

I hardly ever used to think about politics. Every four years i'd pay attention to who was running for president, and in the interim, i'd pay attention to the general news of the day, which was not generally political. But now i feel like everything is related to Trump's presidency, and every day there's new scandals and new executive orders filled with horribleness, and it's just exhausting and depressing. I want to go back to being able to look at Facebook or Twitter or the news or anything and having it be just...life. 

So that's where i'm coming from.

That said, this is what we've been doing for the past month:

• Houston started out the year by putting his retainer on the table while he ate something, forgetting about it, and starting to play a game with us. Midway through the game, Emma came trotting into the room, happily chewing on...Houston's completely destroyed retainer. $150 later, Houston had a new retainer, which i'm happy to say he's being much more conscientious about keeping in the box when it's not in his mouth.

• Katrina, Zane, and i went to Winter Camp with our church's youth groups. It was a weekend of noise and silliness and snow and crafts and not enough sleep. Katrina and Zane both loved it. Zane even loved it despite the fact that his cabin didn't have a bathroom. His group had to run across the camp to the gym to use the bathroom - or the shower, but that didn't seem like an issue, since Zane literally didn't change his clothes the entire weekend. 
  

• Houston had his first exams in January, and they nearly killed us both. I could have just been all, "They're your exams! You do all the work!" but i'm pretty sure that he would have failed them all if i'd done that. The boy just really never had to study much at all before this year, and so he's really bad at it. I spent days and days with him, going through his school books to find the important information he should know, because he doesn't take notes in class. Me: "But...you have a notebook for every subject! Why don't you take notes?!" Him: "I don't know. The teacher doesn't tell us to." 

• Katrina had the giant 7th grade career project, which wrapped up in mid-January. The kids spend months on this project - choosing a career, interviewing someone in that career, doing research, making brochures, writing reports, and ultimately making a tri-fold presentation with a memorized speech. Katrina chose zookeeper as her career and did an amazing job. 
  

• My grandpa, who is now 97 (i believe), had an accident in his home, where he'd been living alone, and moved into an assisted care facility. It's a really nice one ("This place is much nicer than the one Great Grandpa was in!" said both Katrina and Zane), and he seems to be doing very well. 
  

• Once every month or so, we have a "relationship building" week for Fifty6, where each group does their own thing rather than meeting as a whole group at the church. This month, we had all of our girls come to our house, where we did a "Cocoa and Canvas" thing. Juanito took the job of "artist" and told everyone what to paint and how to paint it, and at the end everyone had their own painting to take home. They all did awesome and seemed to have a really good time. 
  

• Katrina and Juanito had their Daddy-daughter dance. Katrina's been excited about it for weeks and weeks. She wanted to get a new dress for it, so we scoured Goodwills for a cute (and appropriate) dress. She chose her hairstyle at least a week prior to the dance. She was adorably happy about it. And they both report having had a really good time. 
  

• On the same day as the Daddy-daughter dance, Houston had his high school dance. He was not 100% sure about the dance even before i brought him, and about an hour and a half into it, he texted me, "Could you maybe come and get me?" 

Me: "Already? Are you bored?" 

Him: "I'm not exactly bored. Just...none of my friends are here and i am basically walking around in circles feeling awkward." 

Me: "Okay. Dad'll be home soon, and then he'll come get you, okay?" 

Him: "Yup. They're playing 'You are the only exception' and everyone is being weird." 

Me: "Define weird."

Him: "They're all dancing and stuff." 

Me: "DANCING???? At a dance!??? WHAT IS NEXT?!"

Him: "I KNOW, RIGHT?!???"

Juanito got home about then, and i asked him if he'd go get Houston. He left and i texted Houston that Juanito was on his way. And then, about 10 minutes later, Juanito called me to ask, "So...the dance IS at City, right?" No. No it was not. It was at Meijer Gardens. Apparently he had been texted Houston, "I'm here!" and Houston had been texting back, "Where?" and the conversation went approximately like this: 

"In the parking lot!" 

"Which one?"

"I'll drive around and look for you!"

"Inside or outside?"

"I AM IN A CAR."

And that's about it. There are a few more pictures here.

December 21

Our dog is weird and likes to be all covered in blankets. I always expect her to do the normal dog thing and fling them off, but she's all "Mmmm.... Blankets," and goes to sleep.

Katrina and Zane had a half day today. Katrina's friend was having a birthday party, so Katrina went home with her for the entire day, returning at nighttime. And Zane went to his friend Finn's house from school until City got out, and then i dropped off Chauncey and Rowen and picked up Zane and brought everyone home. So even though they only had school until 11:30, i didn't see them any more than usual. It gave me a bit of extra time to work on finishing stuff. I am kind of ridiculous, because at Christmastime i just make all the things.

The advent activity tonight was "game night," so Houston and Zane and i spent most of the evening playing games. We pulled out Mastermind for the first time in quite a while, and it turns out that Houston totally has the kind of logical mind needed to be really good at solving the pattern. He is, however, terrible at being the person on the other end - the one saying "one right color right place, two right color wrong place" or whatever. He was that person for me a couple of times, and i'd say something out loud like, "Well, green obviously has to go here because it can't go anywhere else..." and he'd go, "OH!" and change one of the previous round's answers. Zane, on the other hand, was not awesome at solving but was very good at being the master.

December 17 and 18

Yesterday (Saturday), we went to the library to see sled dogs. We've gone a few times before, but my kids all really enjoy it, so it's one of those things that i tend to put on the Advent calendar every year or two. It's always done by the same guy, and every time he starts talking, i suddenly remember that he's remarkably sexist. He is constantly saying things like, "And that's how you find gold, which is important for all of you ladies who love to have lots of gold!" and "Because, guys, once you're married, your wife makes all of your decisions for you...." I do kind of think that he maybe toned down those types of comments this year, which makes me wonder if someone said something to him.

Anyhow! In the morning, i thought, "Hey! I bet that Brooke's kids would probably enjoy that too...." so i texted her to let her know it was happening, and she and her kids met us there. Zane was chosen as the guy to model the coat and boots and all of the other gear needed for racing sled dogs in freezing temperatures, and he really enjoyed being up on stage and getting to be a tiny bit silly. Afterwards we went outside to meet the dogs. Katrina and Houston both went from dog to dog, petting them and letting them lick their faces and petting them some more until we were the very last people left. Meanwhile, Zane looked at the dogs for a minute and then ran off to play in the snow.

Today, Katrina had her 5K for Heart and Sole. It was so cold, but she was completely positive and cheerful, and she ended up being the only girl from her group who ran the entire 5K - all of the other girls turned around midway through. I'm so proud of her, and so glad that she did the whole thing, because she really has been working hard to run farther and faster, and i'm just really glad that she was successful!

Beth and Keren came to the race to cheer for Katrina too, so while she was running, we all stood around and shivered. Well, all of us except for Zane. Zane spent the entire time playing in the snow. By the end, most of us were all, "I am SO COLD! My fingers are numb!" and Zane was all, "Katrina! When we get home, do you want to play in the snow with me?!" Kids.

This afternoon we hung out with Keren and Beth, ate waffles, and opened Christmas presents with Beth. She gave Houston a horse head mask, and i'm pretty sure we'll never see Houston's actual face again. He wore the mask to church for Anthem, even. And, among other presents, she made me a sloth ornament that is one of the cutest things i've ever seen.

And then tonight we had Fifty6 (and the element and Anthem). There's kind of a lot of times when we leaders all kind of go, "Geez, Kyle. What were you thinking?" (Kyle is the Fifty6 pastor.) But tonight? Tonight beats all of the other nights. We had a "dress a group member up like Frosty" contest. They provided white sweatsuits, buttons, corn cob pipes, hats, and brooms. And also packing peanuts. Millions and millions of packing peanuts to stuff the "snowmen" with. It is astonishing how gigantic of a mess a huge room can become when millions of packing peanuts are given to dozens of fifth and sixth graders. ALSO, if you give those packing peanuts to kids right before you sit them down to listen to a sermon? They will not hear a word you say, because they will be busy breaking the peanuts up into tiny little pieces, throwing them in their neighbors hair or down their shirts, and making piles of tiny pieces to throw into the air like snow. Worst. Idea. Ever.

That is all.

December 14, 15, and 16

Zane discovered Calvin and Hobbes this year, and has been absolutely loving the comic strip. Of course, Bill Watterson has completely forbidden the use of Calvin and Hobbes in any kind of merchandising, so buying stuffed animals or anything else with Calvin and/or Hobbes (besides the books) is impossible. And so i went around that by making a Hobbes myself. He's obviously the real version of Hobbes, not the imaginary one, because i figured that if that's what Calvin had, that's what Zane should have. Here's hoping that Zane likes him.

The past few days were really busy, and ultimately we ended up not doing the Advent activity on Wednesday OR Thursday, which actually ended up working out quite well for today. Today's activity was meant to be going to an outdoor Christmas celebration in a little town nearby, but it was SO cold and we were all ready for a night in, so we just did Wednesday's activity tonight. It was to do Mad Libs, which is always one of the kids' favorite activities (weirdly). We did pizza-movie night and watched "Fred Claus," which is one of my favorite Christmas movies. (I have kind of a lot of favorite Christmas movies.)

On Wednesday, Katrina had her Heart and Sole end-of-season party after school. They'll have their 5K on Sunday, unless it's below zero (which is entirely possible). She's been asking me if we can go shopping for her to buy Christmas presents, so when i picked her up, we went straight to Meijer and walked around looking for things that Houston, Zane, and Juanito would like. We both agreed that Juanito is one of the hardest people in the world to find presents for. He has things that he likes, but they're either things he likes but not the stuff that goes with it (Zumba) or stuff he likes, but it has to be really specific and nobody else understands his qualifications (bits to make speakers). Her: "He likes art....?" Me: "Yes. But i've bought him art supplies in the past, and he just never uses them." Her: "Books?" Me: "Yes. But he only reads them on his phone." Etc.

Yesterday evening i had book club. By yesterday morning, i had read approximately 30 pages of a 330ish page book. It was a combination of being busy with Christmas stuff and being uninterested in the first 30 pages of the book, so i kept picking it up and then putting it down immediately. Needless to say, i spent nearly all of my time reading it right up until book club started. I ended up finishing all but about 10 pages, and i don't think anything vital happened in those last 10 pages, so it was fine. Nobody really liked the book a lot ("Code Name Verity"), but it did end up being a fairly good book for discussion. It's weird how that goes - sometimes the books we love and i think will have great discussion end up being us all just going, "Yup." And then books that are just "meh" end up being the ones with the easiest talking points. 

December 11

Despite the roads being terrible today, what with quite a steady fall of snow and absolutely no snow plows to be seen, we had a progressive dinner with my family. We started at our house for appetizers, went to my parents' house for soup and salads, and then finished off at my sister Jackie's house for desserts. There were babies to be held and delicious things to eat and fun people to talk to, so it was all very lovely.

This morning, Katrina and Zane went out to the "forest" by our house to go sledding down a hill that they call "Big Butt." I think it has that name because it's a big hill and they used to slide down it on their butts, but i don't actually know for sure. We skipped church this morning (see: terrible roads), and as soon as they heard that we weren't going to church, the two of them wasted no time throwing on all of their snow gear and heading across the street to Big Butt.

Before everyone showed up here, i suddenly realized that we should probably shovel the walk so that people could get to our house without wading through half a foot of snow. As soon as i said we should shovel, Zane leaped up and said, "I'll do it!" got on the snow gear that he had just removed, and completely shoveled a path from the street to the house. He was all, "I LOVE the snow!"

All of the church events were cancelled tonight because of the snow, which was actually quite nice, because the rest of our weekend has been filled with one thing or another. We read some Christmas books and the kids took showers and everyone got a chance to just relax a little bit. I am a fan of being home and having time to just be still. 

December 10

This morning Travis and Brooke and their kids and Beth all came over to hang out for a little while and to eat lunch. It was so much fun to see Brooke and Travis again! We got to see Brooke a little bit when there were a million people around for the Fantastic Beasts party and movie, but this is our first time seeing Travis since they got back, and it was just really fun to get to sit and talk to them.

Before they came over, Katrina went to her room and set up "stations" for the kids: "Like, a coloring area and an area where they can play with my dolls, and that kind of thing." She put tattoos on the kids and just generally made them love her.

At one point, Zane started wrestling with Travis, and Travis was all, "You should get this kid into jujitsu!" and they were both having a good time. After a couple of minutes of watching them wrestle, i went to the kitchen to say hi to everyone else in there, and then i wandered back to the family room, where Travis had Zane in a headlock and Zane was crying and looking terrified. I quickly said, "He's crying!" and Travis immediately let go, and Zane just kind of quietly freaked out for about 10 minutes. I think he really, truly couldn't breathe, and it just scared him a lot, so then his body over-compensated by making him hyperventilate and still not be able to breathe. I got him a glass of water and helped him concentrate on slowing his breathing, but what finally actually helped was showing him a video of cats being jerks. And once he was calm and could breathe again, he was immediately fine with Travis (who felt really bad), though i noticed that he didn't try wrestling again.

This afternoon, our Advent activity was to go and see a church's Christmas show called "Guardians of Christmas." Going in, i had absolutely no idea what to expect, and i warned the kids that it might be awesome, but it could be terrible too. It was an original show, written by people at the church, and it was surprisingly good. Totally cheesy, but fun and silly and completely entertaining. Katrina didn't like it, but the rest of us did. 

As soon as we got home from the show, Katrina and Zane desperately wanted to go sledding (we just got a few inches of snow for the first time this year), so Juanito took them to the park nearby until it got dark. 

And then we all went to Beth's house to help her decorate her tree and to have hot chocolate and delicious molasses cookies. 

So it was a busy but fun day. Yay!

December 8

For literally weeks, Katrina has been looking forward to her band concert - asking everyone if they're coming, playing the songs for anyone who will stand still, and telling me all about what's happening in concert news.

There's a new band director this year. She started off the year with actual rules and discipline and a requirement that the kids practice their instruments. Katrina was initially all, "She's kind of mean..." and i suggested that maybe she was just making sure that they actually learned something in band this year, and she agreed that that would be a good thing. And within about two weeks, she was fully in this director's corner. They were playing songs! That were recognizable! And they were learning new things! And lo, band was FUN! The teacher was NICE!

Katrina practices. A lot - without ever being reminded. She is loving playing the flute this year.

So the concert was tonight. It was a joint concert between the 7th and 8th grade bands, and they played five songs. And i knew all five songs! They were actual songs! (The previous director chose the worst music in the history of ever.) The kids all looked happy and proud of themselves - and they had a right to! They were SO good! Not, perhaps, professionals, but the difference between last year's concert and this year's concert was drastic. Everyone was duly impressed.

Doodles and Trading

Katrina's art class is participating in a contest to design Google Doodles about the future, and this is one of two that Katrina designed. I completely, completely love it.

Yesterday nobody had homework, so after Katrina got home from Heart and Sole, the kids spent the next 2 hours sorting and trading Halloween candy. They'd been dying to trade since the minute they finished trick-or-treating, so waiting an entire day and a half was nearly torture.

Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween. Yesterday was also somewhat chaotic.

Houston had a giant paper that he had to do by today. Katrina had Heart and Sole. And we went out to my parents' house for trick-or-treating. And that doesn't sound like it should have been chaotic, but it was.

We've been carpooling with Houston's and Zane's best friends (they happen to be brothers) this year, and that means that Houston's friend Chauncey comes home with us after City for an hour and a bit four days a week. That also means that the lovely quiet hour for homework that Houston had before the kids got home has gone away. I thought about trying to make them work on homework - or at least let each other work on homework if they needed - but Chauncey and Rowen are...not quiet. At all. And so Houston started working on his paper at about 4:00 and worked until we left to get Katrina at 5:00.

We picked Katrina up, and she was all, "I ran four miles today. I am exhausted." (WHY? Why would they even HAVE Heart and Sole on Halloween, let alone run 4 miles?! Don't they know there will be trick-or-treating? And lots and lots of walking?)

We stopped quickly to pick up some fast food and then headed straight over to my parents' house. It was 6:00 when we pulled up to their house, so the kids threw on their costumes and i helped Katrina put some pink in her hair, because she REALLY, REALLY wanted pink hair (you totally couldn't see it), and they ran off to go up and down my parents' street.

Katrina was a rainbow unicorn. She and Beth made matching costumes, and they were adorable. Zane was a spy. He was very sure that he was super-cool. And Houston was the Invisible Man. He was ultra tall and pretty awesome. (Houston got a million comments about his costume. People were all, "Whoa!" and "Awesome!" and "Hey Honey! Come look at this!" I saw one dad ask his toddler, "Where's that guy's head?" and the toddler looked up and backed away. Another group asked Houston where his head was (meaning his real head), and Houston simply pointed to the invisible head and kept walking.) The great thing about Houston getting a lot of compliments was that Houston got a lot of compliments and felt really great about himself. The sad thing was that everyone really only noticed Houston. Both Katrina and Zane lamented to me at different times, "I'm sad that nobody has commented on MY costume at all!"

While they were gathering candy in my parents' neighborhood, i got to hold little Eloise for a little while. I missed out on holding the babies on Sunday, so i was thrilled that i got to see them for a bit yesterday!

They came back and we headed half a mile over to my sister's house to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood. We started doing that years ago, when all of the cousins wanted to go together, and now the kids just want to keep that tradition up, even though it's just us and a couple of the cousins. It was almost 8:30 by the time we left for home again.

And Houston still had to finish his paper. I helped him, and he worked hard, but it was after 10:30 by the time he'd finished it. He was exhausted.

He was really, really looking forward to having a less stressful night. But today he had two more fairly major papers to do for two different classes. (I'm pretty sure he'd been told about these days or weeks ago, but he insists he didn't know. He's not the best at listening to all of the words people say, though....) And so today he worked on papers from the time Chauncey left until nearly 9:30.

Both of us are seriously hoping that he doesn't have more papers he has to do tomorrow....

Leader's retreat and lots of stuff about Halloween.

Last night and most of today, we had a leader's retreat for all of the student leaders at our church. Last night was mostly filled with eating pizza, getting to know the other leaders, and watching the guys try to kill each other by climbing inside of giant inflatable balls and slamming into each other. Today was mostly filled with ... well, less teaching than i would have expected.

Meanwhile, Houston had his first dance. It was a costume dance, and Houston went as an invisible man. He reportedly won the "scariest costume" prize. He looked like this:

And meanwhile, Katrina and Zane spent the night at my parents' house and then got to go to their church's Halloween party, which included trunk-or-treating and games, so my kids were thrilled. Candy and carnival games! Yay! 

And then Katrina had another Halloween party at her friend's house this afternoon. She had fun and came home all happy, and all was good until she came down an hour and a half after going to bed to tell me that she couldn't sleep. Because they'd been telling scary stories at the party, and now she just kept thinking about them and .... Sigh. 

And tonight Juanito is going to a concert with Beth and a couple of other friends. So it's been a bit of a chaotic day/weekend.

The past week and a half.

I was all set to start blogging daily after ArtPrize ended, but then our neighbors' pipes all had to be replaced. And it seems like that shouldn't have affected my blog, but it DID, because as the workers were digging up the entire street (or at least sections of it), one of them - the guy working the backhoe - carelessly took down our phone and internet wires. It would have been annoying no matter what, but the guy who told me was all, "Yeah, so we're just going to cut those wires and they'll come and replace them eventually." I was all, "????" and he said, "Well, we have to cut them, because they're in our way." I was more annoyed by the completely cavalier attitude than anything. Except that then our internet was out for 3 days, and that was also pretty annoying

Anyhow. 

Last week was Beth's birthday. She took the day off work and we spent it taking pictures, picking apples, visiting the Cheese Lady, and walking around Meijer Gardens. Juanito made her a cake that was very fancy and also very slippery - it was falling apart, but it was still cute.

The annual pumpkin walk was this past weekend. We went on Friday, right as it started, which turned out to be a very good plan. We were some of the first people there, and it wasn't quite dark yet, but we had the path mostly to ourselves and it was great. My sister called later and said that they'd gone and left because the line to get onto the path was over an hour long. Crazy!!!

Saturday was the Zombie Dash downtown. Juanito, the kids, Beth, and a few other friends from Zumba all dressed up like zombies and scared the runners. Juanito was completely overboard disgusting and bloody again, as is his habit. Houston gets a little bit bloody, and Zane and Katrina are two of the cleanest zombies there. I think that either i don't understand what zombies are supposed to look like or Juanito doesn't, because what *i* picture is completely different from what he does. I don't think of zombies as being particularly bloody at all, whereas he covers himself from head to foot in fake blood and guts. Regardless, they all had fun. (I had fun staying home and NOT being covered in fake blood.)

Katrina and Beth decided to be "rainbow unicorns" for Halloween, so they've been working on their costumes together. They tie-dyed hoodies and then made horns, ears, manes, and tails and safety pinned them all together. (They were going to sew them together, but Katrina was all, "I want to be able to wear this hoodie after Halloween!" so they went the safety pin route, which was totally effective and much, much easier.)

Today Houston had his first official orthodontist appointment. They took molds of his teeth to determine what kind of appliance to put on his teeth first. He's really excited about getting braces, except for the "not being allowed to eat bagels" part of it.

And tonight were parent-teacher conferences for Katrina and Zane. Katrina came with us to her conferences, because she really likes to hear the teachers say nice things about her. She always has glowing reports, and i think that she really likes to hear the teachers tell us how much they like her and how well she's doing. We visited her homeroom teacher (for the general report) and her math teacher (because that's the class she struggles in the most, though her teacher said that she's actually doing very well, because that class is taking 2 years' worth of math and covering it in one year), and then we also visited her art and band teachers, because Katrina really wanted us to.

She wanted us to go to her art teacher because that's her favorite subject, and she's doing awesome in it, and i think she wanted to have her teacher sing her praises. The art teacher knows Juanito from Wedgwood, though, so she kind of spent the entire time talking about other stuff. I finally said, "I think Katrina wants you to tell us how well she's doing...." and she was all, "Oh. Yes, she's great." And then we went to her band teacher because she's been working so, so hard in band, and the band director was very nice and was happy when we told her how glad we are to have her, especially after the last band director, but didn't actually say anything about Katrina until i asked specifically, and then she was all, "Yes. She's doing fine. She turns in her practice sheets and everything...." (She's getting an A+. I kind of think that deserves more praise than "fine," but whatever.) So i think Katrina was somewhat disappointed that she didn't get more kudos from either of them.

And then there's Zane, who is getting acceptable grades, but who is just going to be the death of me. He's gotten better at in-class behavior! Yay! He still doesn't turn in his homework or answer essay questions on tests with more than two words. Boo! But his teacher really likes him! Yay!

There are more pictures right here, if you want to see them.

School pictures!

For the past few years, our school has done school pictures during the last month of summer vacation, but this year they changed it up and did pictures the first week. I'm guessing that it was partly to make it easier for the photographers, who could then come in for one day, take all of the individual AND class pictures, and be done.

The difference between Katrina's and Zane's choices for their outfits makes me giggle a little bit. Katrina started choosing what she'd wear days ago and chose one of her many, many cute long sweaters that have become her favorite thing to wear. In addition, she started looking days ago at ideas for hairstyles and finally settled on one that has lots of little braids all pulled back. (I had my doubts about this style from the beginning, because it looks cute from the side and back but not as much from the front.) I ended up doing her hair twice this morning, because i totally braided and braided and braided, pulled it all back, and let her go look at it, and she realized that it wasn't as cute as she'd expected, so we took out all of the braids and switched to a simpler, sweet little twisty-braidy-bangs-pulled-under-the-hair kind of style. Zane, on the other hand, went to his closet and just kind of grabbed a shirt that he kind of liked and threw on some shorts with it.

And so it was the end of the first week of school. So far:

Houston loves all of his teachers and is really enjoying City. He hardly gets to see Chauncey, but he does get to sit next to Summer in Art class, which is happy. He's already lost his homework planner.

Katrina is really happy to have most of her friends in her class. She's not sure about her new band director just yet, because she's "super strict!" (Me: "Yes, well, compared to your LAST band director, anyone will seem super strict because you're expected to actually learn something!")

Zane loves his teacher, has made a new friend, and is excited about starting band. I think he finally took all of the school supplies out of his back pack and put them into his desk today, after carrying them back and forth to school because he kept forgetting.

First day of school!

Everyone was really excited this morning, of course, and so even though Katrina and Zane don't have to be at school until significantly later than Houston, they were completely ready to go by the time he was ready. And so i took first day of school pictures (YAY!) and then we all went together to bring Houston to high school and then drove straight to Katrina and Zane's school. I was thinking, "Geez, we're going to be so ridiculously early! Probably we'll have to just sit in the car for a while until other kids get there...."

But no. We got there fully 40 minutes early, and yet already the parking lot was nearly completely full. I parked and got out to take a couple of quick pictures of the kids in front of school, and left, and people were already parking illegally because there were no spots left. What madness is this?!

It was a hot day today, and all day i was thinking, "I'll be Houston is roasting at school!" They don't have air conditioning, and when we visited last week, it was the hottest place in all the world - both of us were dripping in sweat by the time we left. Houston's friend said that the teachers mostly have fans, but the windows don't open, and there's only so much they can do.

I drove over to pick Houston up after school - they haven't given out bus passes yet - and i paid close attention to how early the parking lot starts filling up. Unlike the elementary school, where people are lined up an hour early, the high school parking lot didn't even get terribly busy until about 15 minutes after the end of school. Lovely! So i sat and waited and waited and waited for Houston. I'd told him that he'd need to find me in the parking lot (which isn't huge), so i didn't want to go drive or walk around looking for him. Half an hour after school ended, my phone rang, and it was Houston asking, "Where are you?" Me: "I'm in the parking lot?" Him: "Oh."

Turns out, he got confused with his schedule and thought that he had another class, so he tried to go there after school let out, and then he thought i'd drive up and pick him up (which...we discussed this!). He was, indeed, roasting. (We went and bought him some shorts he can wear to school this afternoon.)

By then it was late enough that i just drove straight to the elementary school to get the other kids. It worked out well, because Houston needed to get his transcript, because his geometry teacher is somehow convinced that he didn't take Algebra 1. (He called last week and asked, and i assured him that Houston HAD taken it, but he didn't believe me. So i offered to call the school and ask them, and they confirmed that he'd taken it. But apparently that wasn't convincing enough. Sigh.)

Everyone's day went well. Zane was all happy because he made a friend! Katrina had blisters on her heels (sad), but is in most classes with her friends (happy!). Houston saw several people from elementary school, including his friend Summer, with whom he was best friends for years. They all had homework, which they all did uncomplainingly. (I don't expect that'll last past this week, especially for Zane.) And they were all ready for sleeping by bedtime.

Sunday and Monday!

We had a long, fun day today! We left in the morning for church and didn't get home again until about 11:00 at night. (The rest of the pictures from today are here.)

It was a surprisingly chilly day, except for when the sun was shining, and it rained a touch, but it was lovely overall.

My cute nephew Harrison's birthday party was this afternoon. The party was at my kids' favorite park - Hager Park! It's everyone's favorite park! - so all of the kids under 15 were off playing and having fun for most of the party. There was pizza and cake and presents and lots of awesome people.

After the party we went to my sister Jackie's house to go swimming. Or rather ... we went to her house so the kids could go swimming. It was way too cold for any adults to want to jump into the pool! They loved it and swam for ages, until their teeth were turning blue and they were shivering.

We went straight from Jackie's house to Grand Haven, where we met up with Beth and her niece Emily. We walked down to the lighthouse and watched the sun set, and then walked back to watch the musical fountain. We've been going to see the musical fountain at the end of summer for the past 3-4 years, so it's totally become a tradition at this point. (On the way to Grand Haven, Zane was all, "So this is the week that has the musical fountain?!" Because he was totally under the impression that it was only a once-a-year thing. I blew his mind when i told him that it happens every night of the summer.) It was fun and cheesy and totally great. Both Katrina and Zane fell asleep on the way home, totally exhausted.

Today was supposed to be a lazy day with nothing planned.... But that's not entirely how it ended up. I needed to get Houston's immunization records to bring to registration for high school tomorrow. And Katrina was overdue for the second of three shots. And so i broke the news to her (Seriously. She was beside herself. She brought both of her blankets and a stuffed pillow guy in the car with her so that she could hug them on the way too and from the doctor's office.) and we headed off to the doctor's office. Katrina is a million amazing things, but being tough in the face of pain is not one of her strengths. She wept through the shot and the immediate aftermath and continued to be fairly miserable until we started playing with Snapchat, at which point she was distracted enough that she forgot to be miserable.

We stopped on the way home for a doughnut and then stopped at Goodwill to look for flipflops. We didn't find any flipflops, but we did find a million other things. Juanito and the boys met us there, and we ended up getting coats for the kids and me, shoes for all of the kids, a couple of sweaters, and a few other things. Yay!

Olympics and other stuff

The past several days have been filled up thus:

- Watching the Olympics. I love the Olympics - especially the summer Olympics - and so i get a little bit obsessed. And i'm kind of passing that love/obsession on to my kids. Everyone's favorite is gymnastics; the uneven bars is the favorite favorite.

We all wish that NBC would show more variety. There's fencing and shot put and javelin and equestrian and synchronized swimming and archery and diving and all kinds of other interesting sports, but we really only get to see swimming, track, and gymnastics most of the time. I feel like, when i was a kid, we saw all kinds of different events during the Olympics, but that could just be me remembering things that didn't exist...?

- We tried to go blueberry picking today, but the orchard was closed. There were many sad faces in our car. So instead, we went shopping for school clothes. I feel like i don't want to actually buy many clothes for my kids right now, because all of them have been growing like weeds. Weeds! Houston grew something like 2 inches just in the past 2 months. Buying pants just seems futile! And yet, i supposed i can't just send my kids to school in their underwear....

- I went out for pizza with my mom and sisters to celebrate my younger sisters' birthdays. We sat and talked and laughed and ate delicious pizza. I love my family!

- Katrina had a sleepover with her friend Alex. Between sleepovers and the Olympics, Katrina (all of the kids, but especially Katrina) is getting farther and farther behind on sleep. Everyone is so tired!

- Our friend Keren came to town to visit, and we all went to Beth's house for pizza and Olympics! Beth made cute decorations! And got patriotic glow sticks! And candy in the colors of the Olympic rings! And Keren came up with games to play! With medals! It made the Olympics even more fun!

- Keren and Beth and i went out for pizza for lunch. And then Keren and Beth came over for dinner. It was fun and i love my friends!

- Keren gave Zane a box of slime-making stuff for his birthday, so Zane and Houston spent a long time yesterday making all kinds of slime and gross substances. They thought it was awesome.

The Cursed Child

Last night was the midnight release of the new Harry Potter book, "The Cursed Child." Beth and i have gone to the midnight release of at least 3 of the Harry Potter books before, so of course we wanted to go to this one too! And this time, we could take Houston and Katrina, who have also finished the series! (We didn't want to take Zane and expose him to spoilers, but his best friend was sleeping over, so he wasn't upset at all!)

Beth made us awesome little bags of swag - cauldron cakes and floo powder and Butter Beer and chocolate-covered wands and a little bottle of Felix Felicis! They were SO cute!

The release was at Barnes and Noble, and they had games and fun stuff to do, and it was really fun.

I didn't actually read the book last night, as i did with the other books, because i was just too, too tired, but i did totally read it this morning and finished it in about 4-5 hours. And ... i'm pretty sure i liked it. I'll have to think about it a bit more, but i think i did. 

Adventure Thursday!

Houston and Juanito are still gone until tomorrow, so Beth joined us for Adventure Thursday today! And adventure we did! Rain was totally predicted, so we were hoping it would hold off, and it totally did. It was a perfect day - warm and sunny.

We went farther than we usually do for Adventure Thursday, so it was extra-exciting. (Also extra "are we there yet?"-y from Zane.) Our first stop was the Mini Mac! It's a cute little replica of the Mackinac Bridge, built over a pretty little pond that is positively filled with turtles. I've never seen so many turtles in one small pond in my life! There was even a little grate down the middle, just like the real Mackinac Bridge! We ate lunch on the little island, took pictures in the beautiful field of yellow flowers, and let the kids watch the turtles for ages.

The Mini Mac is right outside of St. Louis, Michigan, which is a cute little, slightly abandoned-feeling, town that's smack dab in the very center of the "Mitten." (That's the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, for anyone NOT from the Mitten.) We walked up and down the street, and wandered through a couple of stores. One was a "Variety" store that fully lived up to its name. It had the most random assortment of goods, and was completely awesome. There were fishing lures and spools of thread and old-fashioned candy and kids' toys and random electronic bits and chairs and a book called, "Bird up! Pheasant Cookbook 'n More" and in smaller print it said, "How to shoot 'em and how to cook 'em...." There was a flea market-type store, which was absolutely enormous and had everything from creepy old dolls and piles of books just thrown on the floor to fancy glass dishes and old 45's. And then we went to the bakery and got ourselves each a donut, because...donuts!

After St. Louis, we drove a short distance to Michigan's smallest post office. Beth literally squealed with glee when we pulled up, because it's tiny and adorable. It was closed for the day (i can't imagine a post office that size needs to be open very many hours!), so we peeked in the windows instead.

And then we drove a few more minutes to see an old 2-story outhouse. It's on private property, so we couldn't get very close, but it was close enough to all agree that a 2-story outhouse is a TERRIBLE idea. Katrina was all, "Why not just build them NEXT TO each other if you need more than one?!" Why, indeed?

We then headed home by a different route, which brought us past a little saloon called the "Hog's Head," which also happens to be the name of a bar in Harry Potter. I was all, "We need to stop there!" and started driving around the block to go back to it, which brought us straight to a giant tank just sitting there. Double-plus good!

And then, the final stop in the adventure was a shoe tree. It's this giant tree that is filled with shoes. So many shoes!

We got home just as it started to rain and rain and rain. Everyone was starving and exhausted, so we ate dinner and collapsed on the sofa and watched an episode of "America's Got Talent." The end.

Busy, busy, busy! But in a good way.

This has been a very busy but fun week. And it's not going to get any less busy!

On Sunday we went to a park/splash pad with my parents, my sister Jackie and her family, and my niece and nephew. It was pouring in the morning, and when we woke up, i was certain that we'd have to go somewhere else, but then it cleared up just in time. It wasn't super warm, but the kids totally played in the water anyhow and had lots of fun.

Katrina had a birthday party on Sunday afternoon, so we left the family earlier than we usually do and went to drop her off at her friend's (grandma's) house, where they apparently swam in the pool for 4 hours before quick eating cake. It was exactly the kind of party that Katrina loves - swimming, swimming, and more swimming.

On Monday, Juanito and Houston left for a quick trip to Kentucky. Juanito is staying with his mum, spending most of their time doing zumba, from what i can tell, and Houston is staying with his uncle JJ and his grandpa on their farm.

Tuesday morning Katrina, Zane, and i went to my parents' house for a sleepover! We've often said that the one downside of living so close is that we don't get to do the whole "visit for an entire week and get to spend lots and lots of time together, just hanging out," so my mom invited us over while half of the family was missing anyhow. Yay!

And that's what we did! We hung out and talked. I went shopping with my dad. All of the kids and i went to my sister's house to swim for half an hour. After the kids went to bed, Jackie came over and she, my sister Chellie, my mom, and i played cards for a few hours. And then the next day we spent hours at Jackie's house, swimming again. (The kids were thrilled!)

We took Emma with us, since we'd be gone nearly 2 days, and she completely exhausted herself, and i'm not even sure how. She was on her leash the entire time. It wasn't always being held, but i wanted to be able to grab her when she started chasing my parents' dog around. Their dog (Lily) is a tiny little fluff-ball, and she's a bit intimidated by Emma, so every once in a while she'll just randomly start barking at Emma. Emma takes that as in invitation to play, so she's all, "OKAY!" and then Lily is all, "Scared! Must run away!" except that as soon as she starts running, Emma gleefully chases her. And since Emma is about 10 times Lily's size, Lily's not a fan of the playing. (She's not always super good at not encouraging the playing, though. One time i actually watched her run straight under Emma from back to front. Emma was all, "What the?!")

While we were setting up our bed in the camper, where Katrina, Zane, and i slept, it was about 2:00 in the afternoon and my mom and i were boiling. It felt like the center of the earth, and we were all, "Geez. We might need to come sleep on the floor in the air conditioning instead!" My mom asked, "Will you need blankets? Or is a sheet good enough?" and i was all, "NO! A sheet is plenty! It's SO HOT!" Cut to the middle of the night, and the temperature has dropped by about 30 degrees, and Katrina (who was sharing the bed with me) and i were shivering. I finally woke up enough to stagger out of bed, half asleep, undoubtedly looking like a completely drunken sailor, across the camper to where the blankets were kept. But in my sleep-addled brain, i grabbed the smallest, thinnest blanket, which barely covered one of us and didn't offer much warmth, and we continued to shiver until about 6:30. We were huddled together to share body heat, and i finally asked, "Uh, hey. Should i get another blanket?" I grabbed one of the big, heavy blankets, threw it on the bed, and we both immediately relaxed and fell into a deep sleep. Lesson: Always have a blanket handy! I should know this already!

While we were swimming on Wednesday, i spent a while teaching Zane to swim again, and he did SO WELL. He can now swim the width of the pool, and he's all, "I LOVE swimming! Can we go swimming again soon? And you can teach me more?!" Success!!!

And then, Wednesday night, Beth came over and hung out with us for the night. We ate dinner and watched an episode of Cupcake Wars and then sent the kids to bed and sat and talked and talked and talked. Fun!