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 20

This afternoon, Houston got his first (of probably many, many) stage of his braces put on. He has what is called a "Carriere" on his top teeth, with a hook on his bottom teeth so that he can attach the two with rubber bands. He also has a retainer on his bottom teeth, but it's very nearly impossible to see, because it's thin, clear plastic. I think that the retainer is keep his bottom teeth from getting all crooked while the rubber bands are pulling his bottom teeth forward. 

He was completely happy about getting the braces started - the orthodontist assistant has told me a few times how wonderful he is. For most of the day, he wasn't bothered by the stuff in his mouth at all, but then just before bedtime his teeth started hurting. I'm curious if that's going to be getting worse or not. 

So far, the biggest struggle has been figuring out how to put his rubber bands on. He has to take them out to eat, but then they're really tiny and have to go way back in his mouth, and i'm sure that everyone who's ever had braces has struggled with this exact thing, but neither Juanito nor i have ever had braces, so we're not a lot of help. I mean, we try to help, but we don't know any secret tricks or anything. I'm sure that in a month it'll be second nature. Hopefully.

Our Advent activity tonight was to make glow jars. We basically just took little jars, cut open glow sticks, poured the glowy stuff into the jars, shook them up, and added glitter. It worked surprisingly well...as long as we used yellow or green. The pink didn't work at all. (Katrina was disappointed about that.) All three kids took them to bed to use as nightlights, and they were totally bright enough to do the job. Fun!

December 12 and 13

Yesterday all of the kids had a snow day, which thrilled them to no end. Katrina and Zane headed out in the morning to go sledding on Big Butt, and stayed out until they were completely frozen. They watched a movie and read books, and we did our Advent activity: "Do Christmas Crafts."

I left it purposefully vague, because i have found, in previous years, that some of my kids *coughZanecough* don't really enjoy some of the crafts that i pick out, but they DO enjoy doing other things that i wouldn't necessarily choose. And so i gave the kids a few ideas but let them do their own thing. Turns out, Katrina, Houston, and i all wanted to do the same thing: a contact paper/tissue paper/black paper stained glass window nativity scene. They took a while to cut everything out, but the end results are really pretty.

Zane initially decided to make a paper wreath, but after essentially having me do all the things for almost the entire project, he abandoned it and instead made a pop-up Christmas card for Juanito. It's super cute, and he had fun. Yay.

Juanito and i abandoned the kids for a few hours in the afternoon for dinner and to do some Christmas shopping. Our Christmas shopping actually mostly takes the form of "this material, and some thread, and laminating sheets, and yarn." We went to Michael's, JoAnn's, and Hobby Lobby, and while we did buy a few small gifts, nearly everything was stuff to use to make other stuff. About half of the kids' presents this year are homemade, and most of the rest of them come from China. We are apparently terrible Americans.

Today i worked on Christmas presents in the morning and then wrapped all of the finished presents. Years ago i started wrapping presents in cloth so that we could just reuse it year after year - it's cheaper, pretty, and better for the environment. It also takes a LOT longer to wrap presents. Last year i bought pretty Christmas paper and wrapped everything in it, and this year the kids asked me to please go back to cloth. So. Yay for the environment! Boo for extra time wrapping!

And then tonight, Beth and i went downtown to walk around and look at Christmas lights. Our town is all pretty and lit up, and it was fun to wander around and see it all. Of course we chose the coldest night of the year so far to do our wandering, so we were fairly frozen, but it was still fun!

While we were downtown, the kids did the Advent activity of the day: make paper chains. Katrina made one long, long chain and one small one that counts down to Christmas and has one link to be removed each day. Zane made a cute short chain with really fat links. I can imagine him doing it for a short time and then getting bored.

And Houston made little chains for Juanito and me, with a note with a few words on each chain. It's SO sweet and cute and i love it. Mine says, "Dear Mommy, Thank you for being my mom. You are by far the best mother i could have ever asked for. You always support me and forgive me quickly. Even if i did something that you specifically told me not to do and i get hurt, you will help me through the pain. Overall, you are an absolutely amazing person. -Houston Moore." Awwwww! He's such a sweet boy. 

December 7

Today's Advent activity was to make snowflakes, and make snowflakes we did - lots and lots of them. But i failed to take a single picture. Sad me. Making snowflakes is a tradition in our family. I've been doing it every year since before we had kids. It's fun to see the snowflakes change every year - the kids are obviously getting better at it, but even my snowflakes are different from year to year. Some years i think i can make really intricate ones, and then the next year i'm all, "Here's another boring snowflake." It used to be that i could immediately tell which snowflakes i made and which ones were made by the kids, but now i'm not always sure, unless i specifically remember making one.

In addition to the lots of snowflakes, i was busy making lots of Christmas presents. Today i made three pairs of pajama pants and the shirts to go with two of them (though that was simply appliqueing a picture onto a ready-made shirt). I also made, for Katrina's American Girl dolls, a fancy dress, a fancy skirt, two pairs of tights, a hat, and a pair of leggings. Also (not for American Girl dolls) a weird floppy monster thing from felted sweaters, which i am hoping the kids will find endearing and not totally stupid. I think that's all.

Also today, I brought Houston to the orthodontist. He just had to get a mold made (again!) for the device that they're going to install in a week or two. I wasn't sure how long it would take us to get there, and i didn't want to be late...and instead we ended up 20 minutes early. I was all ready to settle in to wait for our appointment time, but the lady immediately told Houston to come on back, and five minutes later we were back on our way home. It was quite lovely.

December 6

All three kids and i had dentist appointments today. (Have i mentioned that i hate the dentist? I hate the dentist. Not my particular dentist - he's fine. Just going to the dentist in general.) I had to pick everyone up early from school, and i meant to give Houston a note for his teacher to let him out, but i forgot until after he was already at school, so i texted him, "Oh no! I forgot to give you a note! Can i just text: 'Dear Miss Spanish Teacher, Please let Houston leave for the dentist'?" He eventually texted back, "Giggle. I'll show her." Except then he had a substitute teacher, so he was all, "She might think it's a plot." And then he didn't text again. Meanwhile, i was texting him, "Do i need to call?" "I'm on my way. Let me know if i need to call!" "HOUSTON!!!!" and "Are you coming?!!?!?!" Shortly after that last one, he ran out of the building and was all, "I forgot, and then i saw your text that said you were on your way, so i ran down three flights of stairs!"

The good news is, there were no cavities, so we don't have to go back for 6 months. Yay!

We ate dinner practically on the run the past two nights, so we finally lit our second Advent candle tonight. Halfway through dinner, Houston randomly stuck his hand over one of the candles and held it there for a couple of seconds, and then was all, "OW! That's hot!" To which the rest of us were all like, "DUH!" And so then Juanito started showing them how to put their finger through a candle flame ("It doesn't even hurt!") and how to put out a lit cigarette with your fingers, and i was all, "Why are you telling them this?!"

So yesterday was Handel's Messiah, which couldn't be moved, obviously. And the day before was the Nutcracker, which couldn't be moved. So even though December 5th is when Sinterklaas is supposed to come, i had the kids put out their shoes tonight for the advent activity, and i'm just not telling them that it's technically the wrong day. I'm pretty sure Sinterklaas will make an exception for our house. :)

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....

Busy Sunday

Most of today was spent running from place to place. About one Sunday a month, all of the students from 5th grade through high school do something with their small group. Every group gets to choose what they'll do and where and when they'll do it. That means that we've got four different events that we've got to navigate on those Sundays.

This was that Sunday.

My group went out for shakes right after church, from 12:30-2:00. Beth and i then dashed over to my parents' house to pick up the boys, quickly sing "Happy birthday" to my niece, and say a super-fast hello. Houston's group was meeting at his leader's house at 2:30 for yard and board games, so we dropped him off first. And then we went to drop off Zane at HIS leader's house at 3:00 for Nerf wars and s'mores.

Beth was over for about an hour and a half, so we got to hang out a bit, and then i was off to go pick Zane up again. He'd brought all of his Nerf bullets, and when i got there he was still missing most of them, so i walked around with him for about half an hour, searching for lost bullets.

By the time we got home, i was somewhat starving, having eaten nothing but a shake and a few fries all day, so Zane and i each ate a bowl of cereal while we waited for Juanito and the other kids to get home.

And once they got home, i spent most of the rest of the night helping Houston finish a giant project for English. They had to do 5 different mini-projects based on the books "The Crucible" and "The Scarlet Letter." There was a giant list of options, and Houston chose to make a picture book, a bumper sticker, a greeting card, a list of the top ten ways to tell if someone is a witch, and a short scene from a play. To his credit, he had already completely finished three of them and was very nearly finished with the fourth. He set to work writing the screenplay, which he was all, "It'll only take me 15-30 minutes!" (I was more skeptical, suggesting that it would probably take an hour or two. I was right.) And then i helped him organize it all on a posterboard. And he miraculously was completely finished by 9:30. (I have learned the perils of procrastination and am trying hard to help my kids not follow in my footsteps!)

After a weekend of very little sleep, i am quite remarkably exhausted.

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.

ArtPrize day -1!!!

Lots of pictures here.

Today was "Twin Day" for City's spirit week, so last night at about 8:30, Houston called Chauncey and asked him, "Hey! Do you want to be my twin?" Because they are boys, Chauncey also didn't have a twin plan, so they both wore their matching gym shirts from middle school, fedoras, and some crazy glasses that Chauncey broke in half and they both taped to their faces. Houston looked like this:

It's the day before ArtPrize actually starts, and per our usual tradition, we went to the Ford and Public museums to walk around and see the artists setting up their art outside. We ended up being there quite a bit longer than we'd planned, because Juanito and Zane decided to ride their bikes downtown after zumba to meet us. They got there just as we finished looking at all of the stuff we'd planned to look at, so rather than just send them straight home again, we walked over to a nearby hotel (which, obviously, is open) and looked at the art there too. 

I can never decide if every other year the art at ArtPrize is actually better or if it's that my expectations get really high and then i'm disappointed and then the next year i expect nothing and i'm pleasantly surprised again. But last year i was disappointed in a lot of the art, and so far this year has lots of things i like. (Nothing i LOVE yet, but since ArtPrize hasn't technically even started yet, that's probably to be expected....)

ArtPrize begins! Sort of.

Last year, both Beth and i managed to go to every single venue in ArtPrize, which is...kind of insane, actually. But the very last place both of us went was Biggby Coffee. And so, this year, it was fitting that the very first place we'd go would be Biggby Coffee!

ArtPrize doesn't technically start until next week, but they're doing a "preview week" this week, where just some of the venues will have art for us to look at. And having an extra week seems like a really good idea!

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *  

Tonight Houston's school had a PTSA dinner + "go to all of your child's classes and meet their teachers" event. Yay! I got to sit with Linda for the dinner, which made me really happy, because that meant that i only had to be social with someone i already know, and not having to make awkward small talk is always a happy thing. Plus, i like Linda!

Houston's teachers all seem really great, and i wholeheartedly agree with his feelings about his geometry teacher being...okay. I'm hoping he's a great teacher, because he's not winning a lot of points on the personable scale.

Almost every single one of Houston's teachers, when i said that i was Houston's mom, responded in a really positive way. His Spanish teacher immediately gushed, "Oh, i LOVE Houston! He's just a joy to have in class!" And his Art teacher was likewise gushy. His health teacher's first response was, "Oh! Houston! He wrote in one of his assignments about the time when his brother bit a frog!" and i was all, "....? (Blink. Blink.)" Because to the best of my recollection, Zane has never bit a frog.... I shall have to investigate this story further.

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.

A Very Back to School-type day

This morning was orientation for City High. High school!!!

I obsessively checked and rechecked and re-rechecked the list of things we needed to bring with us to orientation. I'm way more nervous about Houston starting at City than he is! But i'm happy to report that i did manage to bring everything we needed. Birth certificate - check. Immunization record - check. Proof of residency, medical form, receipt for the photographer - check, check, and check. I had everything filled out and the money for his locker and activity pass and the PTSA all neatly clipped together and ready to go. And then we got there and went to the new students meeting, and i watched all of the other parents filling out the paperwork while the principal was talking. I might be a bit overly anxious. Or i'm just organized!

The very first station we went to was for locker assignment, and they totally didn't have Houston's name. We went to the photographer, who ALSO didn't have Houston's name. Thankfully, the office did have his schedule, so we know that he IS actually registered! (Of course, his schedule will be changing, because he's switching from band to art, but still! He's registered!) (Also, he's taking Honor Physics! PHYSICS!)

This afternoon we went to Target for school supplies. School supply shopping! The kids have been asking me when we would go ever since literally the first week of summer vacation. This year, of course, Houston's at a new school, and he wasn't given a list of needed supplies, so for the first time, we had to wing it. Katrina and Zane's teachers gave them lists, some of the things completely reasonable, like pens and pencils and notebooks and folders. Some of the things seem unnecessarily picky, like Katrina's "Mead 5-Star 8 1/2 X 11 notebook." And some of the things make me sigh a little bit, like "At least 10 large glue sticks." (They NEVER use all of the glue sticks! Never!!!) Nevertheless, the kids are all supplied up and ready to go!

While we were there, we looked for new school outfits too. Houston's uniform is black or khaki pants and a blue, red, black, white, or grey collared shirt, so he picked out a red polo shirt and some black pants that he liked. He tried them on and then was waiting by the dressing room to show me, and a lady came by and asked him, "Can i try these on?" Houston was all, "Um, sure?" And then, as he explained it to me, "I was really confused about why she'd ask me, and then i looked down and realized what i was wearing...." She totally thought he worked there.

Tonight was book club. Yay! Beth and i went out for dinner together beforehand, and it was fun to get to hang out with her. The two of us don't get much time with just us very often. Book club was fun - we had 6 of us there, which is a good number. There was some discussion of the actual book (The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry), and much laughter and talking about everything else under the sun. It was a good end to the day!

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. 

Haircut and Balloons!

Two exciting things happened today. The second was planned, but the first was completely unplanned.

It was the middle of the afternoon, and i looked at Houston, whose hair was a curly moppy mess from having never brushed it after showering, and i said, "Houston, you need to brush your hair." And he said, "No." (In a somewhat jokey way.) I replied, "Well. You can brush it! Or i can cut it!" (In a somewhat jokey way.) And he said, "Okay," and didn't move.
Me: "Seriously. If you have long hair, you have to take care of it."
Him: "I don't want to brush it."
Me: "...."
Him: "We can cut it."
Me: "Wait. Seriously, though? I don't want to cut it and then have you regret it later!"
Him: "Yes. It's too hot. I've been thinking about getting it cut.

So within the hour, his hair was gone. He's donating it to Wigs for Kids, so it's a win all around! And he seems really very happy about it, honestly.

Tonight was the Hot Air Balloon Festival! Yay!

There was a free photo booth with virtually no lines, and my kids took full advantage of it. They, along with their cousins, were probably half of the business the photo booth did. They each have a small stack of pictures, and theirs are SO much cuter than anything i ever do in photo booths. So they spent nearly the entire time at the fair doing that.

My parents, my younger sisters and their kids, Beth, Juanito, and our kids were all there, so we had a good group of fun people to hang out with. The sky was cloudless and sunny, perfect for a balloon launch, and then the did the glow at sunset, which is always my favorite part. (I only wish they'd waited until it was a bit darker to do the glow. It was dusk, but not actually dark, and i think they're SO pretty when it's fully dark!)

The beach! And Katrina's popsicle.

We spent most of the day out at my grandpa's beach today. It was warm and sunny, and most of us accidentally got sunburned, but the sunburn was worth the fun. Houston and Katrina were out in the water nearly the entire time we were there, which was no surprise. Zane spent the first half of the time on the beach, building sandcastles, until i went in, and then he joined me and remembered that, "HEY! Playing in the waves is fun!"

When we first got to my grandpa's house, Juanito and the kids went down to the beach while i sat and talked with my grandpa. We talked about books (he's always trying to steer me toward reading more ... meaningful/worthwhile-type books) and he gave me lots of suggestions of things to read. We talked about what was new with us and him and the family in general. We talked about the first movie he ever saw (Sunset Boulevard) and how he wasn't allowed to watch movies when he was growing up, which led to his story about when he made profession of faith. It went like this:

"When i made Profession of Faith, we had a whole catechism class with about 16 people, and each person had to go individually to talk to the elders. The elders only asked three questions. Do you dance? Do you play cards? Do you go to movies? And if you answered yes to any one of those three questions, you had to wait a year, repent, and try again."

Me: "So...they didn't ask anything at all about your faith or what you believe?"
Him: "No. That was it. Three questions. Because the dancing was too sexual, the cards were playing with providence, and the movies represented all of the evils in the world."

Crazy.

Anyhow. eventually i went down to the beach to swim a bit, sit in the sun a bit, and take pictures of the kids and Juanito. I taught Zane how to kind of surf the waves close to shore on his stomach, and he loved that.

And then, as we were getting ready to leave, my grandpa asked if we'd like to go to dinner with him, so we went to an early dinner (we had to get Juanito home for Zumba) of really delicious hamburgers. And while we ate, we talked about the various places my grandpa had practiced medicine and which was his favorite (working the emergency room! "But even though i was a surgeon, i always tried to figure out how to fix them without doing surgery if it was possible. Most surgeons just want to cut open everyone!").

While i was reading to the kids tonight (Howl's Moving Castle and Harry Potter book 4), i let the kids make and eat popsicles. The popsicle maker thingy is SO COOL, and the popsicles are delicious, and Houston and Zane's were perfect, but Katrina's was...not. When i pulled it out, i immediately saw a fairly large moth frozen to it near the top. Ew. I cut that whole part off, and Katrina went about eating the rest of it, until suddenly she spit a piece out, threw it to the floor of the porch, and exclaimed, "I JUST BIT INTO A FLY!" So apparently her popsicle was SO DELICIOUS that not just one bug but TWO froze themselves to death to get to it. The fly was way at the bottom, and she hadn't actually eaten it at all, but...SO GROSS.

I let her have a bowl of ice cream.

Houston was all, "What?" And Katrina and i both said, "She/I bit into a FLY!!!" and he immediately shrugged in a, "Yeah, that's fair," kind of way.

End of School Interviews (finally!)

What did you learn in school this past year?
Houston: The actual, not G-rated history of America, like that the Native Americans and Americans were not friends, and the Native Americans were just sent away. Quadratic equations. We read Animal Farm and the Anne Frank screenplay and a condensed version of Flowers for Agamemnon.

Zane: Symmetry. Food chains. Grammar. I seriously don't remember. A lot of it was washed out of my mind from the last week, because we had so many field trips.

Katrina: Lots of fractions. Cultures - like what culture is and their religion, i guess. Ecosystems. Space. Stuff like that.

What was the most interesting thing (not a field trip) you did this school year?
Houston: I actually liked writing essays. I don't know why. Last year i hated writing essays. I enjoyed writing letters from the perspective of a volcano photographer and stuff like that.

Zane: In science, we did circuits and electricity. We were building circuits and made light bulbs light up. In my group, we put like 5 batteries and 10 light bulbs, and it was really awesome. All of the light bulbs were lighting up.

Katrina: We went down to the pond and made observations about the ecosystem. And we got to make our own continent - like, you got to choose a topic (i chose reading and animals), and make the shape of the continent (we did a book), and then you got to choose like mountains, parks, islands, stuff like that.

What was the best field trip this year?
Houston: Chicago! We went to the John Hancock building and we saw the Sears Tower on the boat tour and we just walked around Chicago and i got a Chicago pen. And we did the thing in the John Hancock building where the glass goes out and it's really cool.

Zane: Lansing. We were gone all day, and i got Jupiter juice (that stuff was weird). We went to the science museum. I saw a huge eyeball - it was disgusting and awesome. We saw some enormous bones - one was like, the biggest bone ever. We went to the capital building, and we saw some really cool things like this awesome thing where you looked up and saw a bunch of stars and they were like two miles away. And on the way there, we saw a movie (Rio).

Katrina: Versluis Park. We got to go swimming. There were a lot of games and a lot of food.

Who was your favorite teacher, and why?
Houston: I liked Miss Miller because she was nice and funny and she liked what she taught (history) and it was interesting.

Zane: Miss Coughlin. I didn't have any other teachers. Wait...do you mean specials too? Then...still Miss Coughlin. She was just really nice.

Katrina: Miss Baareman, because i knew her best because she was also my Heart and Soul coach. She was really nice, and she understood what it was like to have lots of homework and be overwhelmed, so she didn't give us all the homework in the world.

What do you plan to do this summer?
Houston: Legos. Other cool stuff.... I could work on more games like Pumchecs, and make that game better....

Zane: I really want to take a long bike ride with Dad. And i'm looking forward to my birthday! Because...who doesn't?

Katrina: Make a paper mache volcano. Go to the zoo. Have ice cream. Sleep over at Alex's house and have her sleep at our house. Stuff like that.

What do you think next year's school year will be like?
Houston: Probably a lot harder and hopefully better. I'll be with my friends Chauncey and Melody.

Zane: I think it's going to be awesome! Because i'm going to go to Michigan Adventures!!! (But that's not the only reason i'm looking forward to it. Because that would just be sad.)

Katrina: Hard. Because i'll have more classes and the teachers seem meaner. One of my teachers might move up to the 7th grade (and she was my least favorite!).

Who were your school friends this year?
Houston: Anthony, Zoe, Brandon, Melody, Claire, Lance

Zane: Isaac and Finneus

Katrina: Emily, Emily, Madison, Isabella, Max, Kim, Phoebe

Summer days

I spent most of the past two days finding, choosing, and organizing pictures, and then trying to get them into a slideshow that works as a DVD for my aunt's funeral. And it is finished!

While i was glued to the computer, the kids amused themselves by being kids. They played with the dress-up clothes, concocting some elaborate game wherein they had to randomly pull out things to put on. They were entirely amused with themselves. Houston created a board game named Pumchecs, which has elaborate rules and is surprisingly enjoyable. They rode bikes and played with chalk and combined the two things with Zane's fancy chalk-drawing bike attachment.

Summer!