Back to School

Going back to school was a little bit busier this year than in past years.  That is because not only did Nate start kindergarten, but Joe and I headed back to school as well--as teachers.  Crazy, right?  Yes, yes it is.

Joe had been going a bit crazy working from home and not really interacting with anyone all day, except for through email and occasionally over the phone.  So, while he was getting plenty of business, work was not ideal for him.  He has always wanted to teach and now felt like a good time to give it a shot.  He applied for and was hired as the middle school ESL teacher in his hometown.  

A few weeks later, we heard from Joe's aunt that the high school was having a hard time filling open math positions.  She asked if I'd be interested.  I thought about it and decided I wouldn't want to work full time but if I could just work afternoons I might be interested.  The principal called me and said that would be possible.  They really were desperate, I think.  Keep in mind, neither Joe nor I are certified teachers.  Anyway, I thought--well, I might as well interview and see if I even get the job.  So, I updated my 11-year-old resume (started from scratch, actually), filled out the application and went in for my interview.  I did my best to answer all of their questions about how I would teach when I have no experience actually teaching.  I obviously do have experience from these last 11 years working with kids, although much younger than high-schoolers.  I am passionate about math education, especially after teaching my own kids all these years.  Anyway, I wasn't sure what they would decide but sure enough--they offered me the job!  Then came the tough part of decided what to do.  That was hard--I was back and forth constantly.  

One day I dropped the older kids off at golf lessons while Eli stayed at home with Joe and I had some time to think.  I walked on the canyon path I love and just thought and prayed through everything.  

I took this picture:

When it came down to it, I decided to take the unique opportunity of getting to teach the math that I love, get some work experience, and really step out of my comfort zone.  Boy has that been true.  I had no idea how hard teaching really is.  I am learning!  And I'm only teaching part-time!

The biggest thing holding me back was that I wanted to be at home with Eli.  Nate goes to kindergarten while I teach so I don't miss time with him but I do miss time with Eli.  It was heart-wrenching to decide but we felt like the cost wouldn't be too much since he naps for a lot of that time anyway.  We found a great babysitter with a little girl his age and with a room he can nap in and he has been doing great.  He's not always so enthusiastic to go but he has yet to cry or really cling too much when I drop him off.  That might be coming--who knows?  For now, I feel like this has been good for all of us, although it has definitely been hard.  We're all adjusting.  

Thoughtful little notes like this one from Natalie really help:

I love my family and that they support me so well.

OK, now on to the kids because it was a big year for them, too.  It's the first and only year all three of the older kids are in the same school.  Nate started kindergarten and managed to survive it alright.  He was not looking forward to it.  I knew once he gave it a chance he'd like it.  He was happy to have a friend from his t-ball team in his class, and a close neighbor girl too.   Eli and I took him to school his first day and he did great.  He got right in line with no tears from either of us (although a little part of my heart broke knowing there was no turning back to the carefree days at home for him).  We were both ready.  I tried to get him to pose for some pictures and this is what I got:

Eli sure loves his big brother and misses him when he's gone.  He can't wait until he gets to go to kindergarten. 

Nate walks home with his sisters and he was happy and excited when he got home so I think it was a good day.  He also came home with this paper:

The little stinker.  

For a while he wouldn't admit he liked kindergarten but he's less stubborn about it now.  He loved dressing up in the color of the day every day one week and he loves to show me all the things he draws.  He does complain about having to write his name "100 times", though.  

The girls both had a good first day.  They seem to like their teachers.  Elizabeth's work load has picked up a little bit this year but she is doing great.  Natalie is doing a lot of online work in her class, which is new but I think she is liking it a lot.  

Here they are in all their first-day-of-school glory:

I love those beautiful girls.

We're a month in and still doing pretty well.  Yay for school!

Eli-isms

Joe, Elizabeth and I have all independently commented that we really need to record some of the cute things Eli says lately on the blog.  That's one of our favorites things about this blog--the record of the cute stuff my kids used to say.  So, I've been mentally keeping track of some of these for a while now.  I'll probably have to keep adding to this post as I hear things.

Eli can't say his "l"'s so he always replaces them with "y"'s.  It's adorable.  He also has trouble with consonant combinations at the beginning of words that start with "s" like "st" or "sc".  He pretty much always drops out the "s".

So, here are some of his cute sayings:

-"Yimbo yo-down":  translation: limbo low-down.  This comes from an episode of the Backyardigans.  Eli loves doing the limbo and loves putting one of the lightsabers across two chairs to do it.  He also has started saying it whenever he sees anything going across other things.  For example, the other day he was climbing from the top of the toilet onto the bathroom counter the other day and he said, "Yook, Mom.  Yimbo yo-down!"
-"Cool bus": translation: school bus.  He loves pointing these out and talking about people going to "cool".
-"top sign": translation: stop sign.  He always makes sure I stop at stop signs.
-"Dar fo-fo":  translation: Darth Vader.  Sadly, we watched the last Star Wars movie the other day and it was the very first time that Eli said "Darth Vader" instead of "Dar Vo-vo".  It made us so sad--hence this post.  When Darth Vader comes on the screen, Eli always says, "Yook!  It's me!"  He is always Darth Vader when he and Nate play with lightsabers.  He will even say, "Yuke.  I am your father!"  Eli knows all of the "Tar Wars" characters.  He can even tell the difference between Jango Fett and Boba Fett.  "Kenobi-Wan" is how he says "Obi-wan Kenobi".  "Troom-tooper" is how he says "stormtrooper".  And of course, "Yuke" and Yeia". :)
-"I yuv you": translation: I love you.  No explanation needed.  Pure cuteness.
-"I yuv yemen yogurt!": translation: I love lemon yogurt!
-"Help us to be strong yike Superman": Eli often says this in his prayers.  He still loves say he is Superman, not Eli, and that "Superman saves the day!" or "Superman saves people!"
-"Yib-a-bef": translation: Elizabeth.  He usually calls her "Yizzy" but sometimes he will say this instead and it cracks us all up.
-"Brekist": translation: breakfast.
-"I'm cared of the dark.": translation: I'm scared of the dark.

July

I really need to catch up on more of our summer now that school is in full swing and life is crazy.  Here are some highlights:

Finding an itty-bitty frog at one of Nate's t-ball games:

I completed a 30-day Book of Mormon reading challenge in July.  I loved it!  It was just what I needed.  If you've ever thought about doing something like that, give it a try.

This spoke to me one day:

We had a great 4th of July.  There was a mini-Atkinder gathering here and it was so much fun.  We hung out eating food then played some water kickball and had a slip 'n slide:

In the evening we came back to our place for dinner and then watched the fireworks from our backyard.  We sure loved seeing everyone.

I found this one morning:

I love my sweet goal-setting daughter.

Speaking of her, here she is reading at the park:

That cracked me up. :)

One day I up and decided, "We are going on a hike!"

I got some resistance from the clan but I pushed through.  We started off great.  Everyone was having a great time:

Sadly, soon after that picture things devolved into chaos.  The trail we were on was very bushy and we were fighting our way through.  Also, we were getting attacked by mosquitos and I forgot to bring bug spray.  So, we turned back.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted (I thought so, at least :).

We did visit the falls and had fun around there.

Can you see my tiny children?

We had a fun couple of days visiting Tom and Lorna while they were watching Chris and Regina's kids.  Here is Eli and Maddie pretending to be each other's "cute baby":

One of Eli's favorite things is to ride bikes in the driveway.  We spend a lot of evenings like this:

Or like this:

He must play hard during the day to sleep like this at night:

Since Eli has older siblings who all receive allowance, he also gets some allowance.  He decided that he wanted to use his money to buy ice cream for everyone in our family.  He talked about this constantly.  After quite a few weeks he finally had enough!

Such a cute, generous guy.

One Saturday when Joe was out of town, and our house was in bad shape, we were cleaning machines.  I just had to text him this picture to get some praise for all our hard work:

We had a fun visit from Richard and Archer for a week (Toni came later, too).  The kids sure loved playing with Archer:

Nate was actually especially sweet with him although I didn't get any pictures of that.  He has always been so good with babies.

Joe and I and the older three kids drove to Rexburg one day to go to Simon's graduation.  We had a lot of fun eating their delicious food and letting our kids run around at their house before the graduation.  I sure loved their adorable little Genevieve and got as much baby-holding time in as I could:

At the end of the month we got to have Joelle and Randon stay with us for a week.  It was so much fun and they were so easy.  One day we took them back to the falls:

They had a cousin sleep-out on the trampoline one night.  I don't think Nate lasted but everyone else did. 

It was a great month--with some major developments.  More on that next time....