I could have sworn that I wrote something else in the blog after school had started, but I guess not!
Lots to catch up on.
So the first couple of weeks of school were fine. The kids were settling back into school mode and we were getting used to the new routine we would be having. September I remember being pretty chill because there were no sports and the only thing going on I think were scouts meetings weekly.
Then October hit and things kicked into gear. Emmeline started volleyball, which felt like a pretty short season. The team did great and ended up 2nd place in the championship, if I remember right. Now she's playing basketball, with the first tournament being this Saturday. Connor is also doing basketball and he has a new coach this year. For some reason, they're deciding to do A LOT of other basketball-related tournaments, so the calendar is full of that up to like February. They're going down to Tulsa this weekend with all the other basketball teams to compete on some tournament. There is practice a couple of times a week for both Emmeline and Connor, but Connor's is from 8 to 9pm. WTF! Not a fan of that and the new coach, really, as they don't seem to respect people's time.
I've been pretty busy this school year as well. I knew I wanted to do an elective or cluster for the school regarding photography, but I didn't plan on doing BOTH. So, I've got that going. It's going okay, actually. The kids are having fun. The funny part is that because the 8th grade elective was starting up sooner than I had anticipated, I actually opted, at first, to not do electives and only do clusters. However, they contacted me back and said "what if we promise to give you the best 5-6 kids (max), would you reconsider?" I was surprised that they even offered that, but that was technically one of the reasons I was hesitant about (getting unruly kids), so I caved and said sure. They don't seem as into it as the younger kids, but that's okay. Planning for that has been pretty straight forward, but I've already bought a bunch of stuff for that, so it hasn't been cheap. Plus, I'm winging it, so if I do it again next year, I'm going to adjust some stuff. One thing is that I should have just bought proper soft boxes for the "portrait day" activity, but I got cheap LED lights. They don't get as high as I needed them to and it turned out after buying all the lights and stands and stuff, I thought I would be saving money going the cheap route, but in reality, it would have been about the same. Oh well.
On top of that, I'm doing academic bowl again for the 4th and 7th/8th grade teams. All in all, it's a VERY busy first semester. The flip side is that I think this is better than having nothing to do, I guess. It has been kind of stressful, though, when that is combined with all the other stuff like scouts, trips, Emmeline doing theatre again this year, and the like. There hasn't really been a weekend where we've just chilled. There's always something.
This past couple of weeks, we went to Branson and Silver Dollar City for Emmeline's 10th birthday. Not a fan of birthday trips, but hopefully this is the last for a while. It was fun, but it did get cold on the last day at the park and both days it was REALLY crowded. I think one day would have been just fine. I stupidly rode on this one roller coaster that had barrel rolls and a pretty much vertical drop. Maybe when I was younger, but I'm really not into that anymore. Then after a few days of that, we were in Tulsa for a few days, so we were away from home a good amount. Just wanted to go home there for a while.
I was also sort of sick for a week with a bad cold or something. It just lingered for longer than a normal cold. No fever, but stuff nose and coughing. Now everyone seems to have it. I still have a weird cough from time to time.
Now, as we head into the Christmas season and break, things are on a good routine, I think, as long as there are no other surprises. Oh, actually, just a couple of days ago, my Mom did start her move to the new apartment a little farther from her old place. This place has more care, which she needs because she really can't remember much other than the really important stuff. She emails me now instead of texting, which is sort of annoying because sometimes I can't see the message if I don't use the correct browser. Anyway, on the day of the move, she, of course, forgot she was moving and was convinced that she wasn't going to move. She went to the office and stuff to figure out what was happening and this was when Steve, Justine, and David got there to help pack her things up and stuff. She freaked out and called the cops on them. Reiko had randomly texted me if I can call her to explain the situation. When I called, the cops had just gotten there or something. After talking with my Mom for a bit, I talked to the cop a bit as well and explained everything. Then back to talking to my Mom to make her okay with moving, which she finally did. Not to brag, but I literally saved that day by calling and I wonder what would have happened if I didn't or didn't get Reiko's text in time or something. My mom did said a couple of weeks ago that she wasn't moving and if they came, that she would either call the cops or jump out of window. Sigh. The only thing that worked was to keep saying that she did know about the move and she was fine with it, but that she forgot. She kept saying she didn't, but whatever.
So, later this month, we'll try and give her a visit to check out the new place and maybe visit Reiko as well. I don't want to stay more than a night there, though.
It hasn't been feeling like the holiday season lately, I think mostly in part due to how warm it was until literally like last week. It's still warm-ish, but it's getting colder. I think it's too late, though.
Anyway, looking forward to Christmas with the McGuires later this month. I'm more excited about Estes Park next Thanksgiving, actually.