Forty-five books checked out from the library, and the last thing you want to hear when standing at the checkout counter with your two full bags and three armfuls of books is, "Ms. Harris, the library manager would like to speak to you." Ummm...okay. That has never happened to me, EVER. Even when loosing a book or having an $8 library fine. We follow all the library rules, pay our fines in a pretty reasonable time and my kids are mostly quiet (when they're not arguing). Well, Dallas does like to jump off the stools, but surely we aren't getting in trouble for that. I do use the kids library cards to put school books on hold. Maybe there's a limit of books per family? Maybe they had a meeting and Ms. Harris and all her checkouts came up? Shouldn't my love for books make them happy? My mind ran through 800 scenarios, but never came up with the actual reason the library manager wanted to "speak to me". Apparently, a book I placed on hold is missing. It's their only copy, but they've ordered another one, but it won't be available for a month or two. Whew...no worries there. She even looked it up on Amazon and told me if I needed it before then she found it used in good condition for $4.99 and free shipping. She wanted me to know my options. Wow! That's why we love the library. They do want us to love books and they're not having secret meetings about me.
School went great this week. We're starting with the basics: Bible, reading, math, language arts and vocabulary. We'll add in writing, science, history/social studies and some other stuff in September. I'm hoping our school day will still be the same length. Right now we typically start around 9:30 and go until 12:30. Since each kiddo is doing their own history/social studies this year, it might take a little longer. Meaning, we might have to start earlier, much to the dismay of the girls. They have a hard time getting up at 8:00 as it is. I just really like being done by lunch. It's so hard for my kids to refocus after lunch. It's when we have the most tears and meltdowns, myself included.
Dallas lost his first tooth during Taco Tuesday at my sister's house.
This is our last first tooth. I really hate for him to loose his teeth. They're so little and cute and the teeth coming in are so big and awkward. It's going to change his appearance so much and remind me everyday that my little boy is growing up. We did find out at his last dentist appointment that he is genetically missing his lateral incisor's, so hopefully he won't need braces.
He was a little sad because that was his favorite tooth. Then he put the Tooth Fairy pillow in the living room because he didn't want the Tooth Fairy coming in his room while he slept.
In the end he was happy though.
And the one thing I have learned during all of this is to always save my dollar bills because you never know when a tooth will fall out, or be pulled out. Thank you to Meme and Papaw for coming through at the last minute, but if it had been up to Papaw, Dallas would be a lot richer. Let me just say, the "Tooth Fairy" wasn't that generous when I was a little kid.
Speaking of teeth, Kristen got four spacers put in this week to get her teeth prepared for her bottom braces that will go on in September. It's amazing how much straighter her top teeth look in just two months!
Dallas, Paul and myself had an exciting Thursday. We decided to sign Dallas up for Cub Scouts this year. He just wants to do fun things like the girls, but with Paul. We are super excited for this opportunity. We got invited to an event at Blackstone Army Airfield and got to meet the Troop Leader and some of the parents on Thursday. It was a great experience.
The most exciting part was watching Paratroopers jump from a Chinook.
The Paratroopers flew in from Fort Lee. The Chinook and crew actually flew in from a base in Pennsylvania. The first group that jumped were, I guess you could say, the professional Paratroopers. They jump from 10,000 feet up in the air. Ummm....no thank you. That helicopter was rrreeeaaaalllllyyyy high up, and they didn't make it all the way up to 10,000 feet. I think they jumped at like 9,000 feet. By the time it made it up there, it was a speck in the sky. I like the ground too much to do that.
After they jumped, they then had to walk a very long way to make it to the hanger where we were at, lugging everything with them. If they would've let me drive the hummer, I would've went and picked them all up.
We were able to see the second group preparing for their jump and talk to them before they went up. The General from Fort Lee made an appearance too.
Their parachutes were different from the first group that jumped. There was a reason for this, I just can't remember what it was. Since they weren't professionals yet, they only jumped from 1,500 feet. Still way too high for me. I've been on the drop zone at Kings Dominion once, so I imagine jumping from an airplane to be like a really high drop zone, without the teenager running the ride. Who would want to do that?
The problem was it was really windy, so only about half, maybe a little more, were able to jump. They had to fill the Chinook up two times with gas while we were there. That's how much flying around they were doing. It gets about 3 hours flight time on a full tank of gas.
Dallas was also able to sit in a Hummer. The doors on these vehicles are so heavy! It's amazing what these vehicles can do.
He got to take a look at a Military Ambulance.
Dallas and Paul also got to go up in the air traffic control tower.
They fed us hot dogs, potato salad and fruit. The Boy Scouts provided the water, grills and cobblers. It was a pretty awesome day!
The girls look forward to getting their Girl Scout yearbooks every year, so that was the main excitement of this event for them.
It really is a great idea. We've been really blessed with a great leader. When I grow up I want to be just like her! She leads all of the groups with only a co-leader for after school Daisies. And she has it together.
The kickoff was a spaghetti dinner and ice cream social that the Cadettes led. It was part of their Silver award. They painted a labyrinth at New Life United Methodist Church.
I had no idea what a labyrinth was, but apparently they are found in cathedrals all over Europe. Basically it's a maze used for meditation or prayer. You have to be quiet while walking the labyrinth and this particular labyrinth takes about ten minutes from start to finish. Each group of girls got to walk it.
After everyone went through, I then walked the labyrinth and it was really calming to walk and pray for ten minutes with no interruptions. I think I'm going to need one in my backyard.
The girls also got to play some games, including Kristen's favorite game...Gaga ball. I found out that she's really good at it too. She won most rounds and was always the last two people left. I think she only lost one round. These girls love Gaga ball. It does look fun.
Some other happenings this week:
Lauren's final birthday gift came.
She needed headphones. She loves listening to music on her Kindle and I was tired of hearing, "Turn it down Lauren". So now she doesn't have to. Hopefully she won't break these.
We also made edible slime, per Kristen's request.
It was basically just edible and not very slime like.
