The summer break is coming to a graceful end here in TRF. First day of class for the boys is coming up on Thursday, September 1. The only controversy surrounding the school year has been settled too: An elderly lady whose house sits directly in front of last year's bus stop was upset about its location, so the school district moved the sign approximately 20 feet South of last year's spot. We wondered for a while where it would be moved to, but thankfully it's still very close to home.
Aaron received a letter from his new third grade teacher last week, Mrs. McGeary, introducing herself and inviting him to complete a "word-find" puzzle with his new classmates' names in it for a special treat when he comes to class on Thursday. No letter for Daniel yet, though. Their open house at Challenger Elementary is going to be on my birthday, August 30th, so we will probably take the bus out there that day to meet and greet everyone for this year's school-term. We got the back-to-school supplies a couple weeks ago and their respective backpacks are fully stocked and have (amazingly) remained zipped ever since I told them not to touch anything before school starts. We still need to get a few more clothes items, though.
As for current events, I've been working on catching up around the house. Yesterday, I bought my Martha Stewart manual hedge clippers (Can't get away from that blasted woman at K-mart these days) and spent part of the afternoon trimming down the front hedge so I can clearly see the porch again, then caught up on mowing the front lawn. Every time I see Ken Murphy across the street on the riding lawnmower, I'm reminded I need to get on the stick. Now we just have to catch up on the backyard. Aaron helped me mow the front and was quite proud of himself. He's getting the hang of keeping it in a straight line without missing any strips of grass. Maybe in a couple three years he'll be doing it on his own for allowance... He already asked for $1.00 for helping.
Daniel lost his good bicycle helmet and his spare helmet he unfortunately ruined. It was kind of funny, actually. We had a thunderstorm again this past week and he had left the spare helmet outside in the rain. I brought it inside the porch to dry, but when we rode into town later the next day, it was still wet. He put it on his head and for the life of me, I couldnt' figure out why it always sat cockeyed on his head as we pedaled through town. It wasn't until we got home and he took the helmet off that I realized he had ripped all of the foam padding that serves as a spacer for a snug fit because they were wet and he didn't want his head to get wet... We ended up going to K-mart and got him a new helmet, so he's back in business.
We went out tonight for another bikeride, but I unfortunately changed out of shorts into pants right before we left and ended up locking us out of the house again... We saw Andrew delivering for Domino's, though, so we stood on the opposite side of the sidewalk, waiting for him to return to his base. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes later, there he was going the same direction as when we saw him last! He had taken a detour, so we missed him again. About an hour later, we met him at the Domino's store to get his key from him. It was at that time I noticed for the first time there's a beautiful playing field covered in lush green grass by the railroad tracks on 3rd next to the old school that was made into a church. We've been looking for a close park for some time now that we can take the football and a kite to and we finally found it! We're probably going to head back out there tomorrow afternoon and have some fun before school starts again. Should be fun. The grass is the perfect length too to go barefoot in. :o)
As for the injury report, Daniel has slowed down from several Band-Aids a week to one every two weeks or so now, but Aaron was coming down the stairs last night at home with a shoe only half on and ended up twisting his foot pretty bad. He's got a bruise on the inner ball of his left foot that looks like it could be a bone bruise. He's limping around a little bit, but still made it on our biking trip this evening, so he should be fine. No other major injuries this summer season, knock on wood.
Like I mentioned above, Andrew has gotten a job driving for Domino's and has been enjoying good tips so far on top of hourly pay and gas money. He also picked up an application to be a dealer at the Seven Clans Casino. His goal is to eventually quit the St. Hilaire Seed Company if he can as he's had his fill there. He's not sure when he's going to start school yet.
I've told most people already who read this blog, but Daniel lost his other front tooth a couple weeks ago, so now he's toothless for Christmas. We'll see how long it takes for the new chiclets to arrive.. I'm posting a pic of him after his mud pie for your enjoyment. He's quite proud of his new toothless look and surprisingly doesn't have a lot of trouble eating without those teeth either.
Other than choir starting up again at Trinity probably in September, there's not much else going on over here. Just small town living at a small town pace, enjoying the gradual passing of summer into fall. We did get ourselves a new guinea pig recently from the Humane Society in town here. Her name is "Snowball" and she's an albino guinea pig, almost entirely white with pink eyes. She fits in well with Funny Bunny in her cage. We bought her a medium purple igloo that she can go and hide in when she wants. She loves lettuce like you wouldn't believe. She's my/our first guinea pig and is fairly low maintenance. She also makes funny sounds too when she gets excited, unlike Funny Bunny.
The boys are looking forward to the leaves falling as we happen to have one of the largest Dutch elm trees in town right in front of our house. Should make for a nice pile of leaves to jump in. I'll be happy to get a long respite from lawnmowing too.
Take care, everyone... :o)
