What Day Is This?!?

Bobbi and Ed came in last weekend for a visit. It was nice to see them since it's been a while. It was also nice to have a stretch of days where we didn't have to do anything. That's not to say it was light on drama, because there was certainly a ton, but it had nothing to do with Bobbi and Ed. Of course, that drama continued throughout the week but that's neither here nor there. It's just what happens when you have friends you care about a lot. Anyway, we had a very nice visit and, as always, it was too short. They flew back to Chicago on Monday and we went back to reality on Tuesday.

I started feeling sick on Monday evening. I've been dealing with this whole allergy/cold thing that's really beginning to make me mad. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to deal with this again this year. Ugh.

Hannah thinks it's way cool that a tropical storm shares her name. She's been running around saying, "I'm a hurricane!" It's been driving Daniel nuts. He got so jealous that he finally yelled, "well hurricanes aren't the most powerful thing in the world. Tornadoes are worse!" They were totally cracking me up.

I didn't workout on Tuesday because I just didn't feel well enough, but I've been in for the rest of the week. I have yet to lose any weight but I've lost a couple of inches here and there. I guess that's more important anyway. I'm also losing my back rolls which is always a good thing. I just can't believe that I'm up to an hour on the elliptical. That's crazy!!! I also discovered the steam room at the center this week. It's my new favorite thing. A nice steam is so nice and I can actually breathe through my nose for about an hour after! LOL!

Last week we found about 10 monarch caterpillars in the milkweed. We decided to bring them in as well. We got a better container for them and most have turned into a chrysalis. What was really cute was as we were collecting them, a couple of neighbor girls came by to see what we were doing and asked if they could take one home. I talked to their moms and they said it was fine so I sent them home with a caterpillar and a big bunch of milkweed. They've been asking me a lot of questions about how long it takes and whatnot. I was so impressed with Jacob who helped answer some of Beth's questions. She told me today that he told her to look for when the caterpillar turns into a J shape on the top of the container and she said that he was right. He's been paying attention. I'm just loving this!

Jacob's had two weeks of Wednesday Keshet classes. He fought me hard the first week but didn't give me a hard time at all this week. Thankfully, he's looking forward to Sunday School starting up this weekend.

All three are doing really well in school so far. I have yet to hear anything from Daniel's teacher and I've seen her quite a bit. She's not one that holds anything back on that sort of thing either. They all seem to be doing pretty well, which is a huge relief. Poor Hannah's just exhausted but she's still getting used to the whole full day thing. Starting next week I'll be helping for an hour once a week in the school's library. The second graders have never done Accelerated Reader before and they need help learning how to choose the right books. I'll be helping out with that. I'm looking forward to it. The kids love running into me at the school. I'm excited that I can help out more with stuff like this. Full day kindergarten is a wonderful thing.

Jacob starts orchestra next week. Only they don't call it orchestra, they call it strings. Either way, he chose the violin and was sized for one last week. He'll get his violin on Monday and his first class is on Tuesday. He had to sign a contract for the teacher that said he's committed to practice 10 minutes a day. I liked that. Anyway, he's excited. Daniel told me that he'd like to learn the trumpet. He's got a few years until he can start (5th grade) but trumpet's perfectly fine with me. I don't care what you play, just that you play something. Except for drums. I just don't think I could handle the drums.

We start jiu jitsu reflex classes tomorrow. I'm about 6 classes away from my second stripe. Master Dave said that he'd like for me to test for my blue belt before the end of the year. I just don't see how that's going to happen but we'll see. And Daniel has his first football game tomorrow. He just loves football and is so excited about the game. I can't wait to see it all.

So, I guess that's about it from here for now. I'll try to do a better job posting!