Today...

 ...sucked.

Only the 2nd Post of 2026

Well, it's apparent that things have been quite busy the last couple of months, and it seems like there's no end, even during the Summer.

Let's go through the months.

Last semester started a little weird in terms of the clusters and electives. Clusters I believe started a little later than it should have, so I had less time with my group, but that was okay since I was afraid of running out of stuff to do each week. I had Emmeline again and, in fact, they gave me all 5th graders. Not sure why as I think the younger kids would have liked the cluster, but oh well. They did tell me that 19 kids put my cluster as their #1 choice, which was cool. A couple of kids were added at the last minute, too. Both were brand new kids in Emmeline's grade, so that was good to get to know them a little better.

Electives were strange because some were given choices if they wanted to keep doing the same elective to the end of the year or get new students. I sort of panicked because I didn't have enough content to the end of the year, so I said if you want to give me new students, that's fine. So, my 6th graders were replaced with new 6th graders, but my 8th graders decided to stay. It was awkward since that would mean they would redo some of the stuff they'd already done, but I did try to switch it up so they did some new stuff. Overall, it was fine, I guess. 

Through all this, we stayed busy with academic bowl, new basketball practices, voice, etc. It got real busy for a while there and I think the most busy was actually a couple of weeks ago when Laura had to go to Denver for a week and I was literally driving from place to place with both kids. I used an entire tank in a few days.

And, speaking of that, while Laura and the kids were at St. Thomas this past week and into some of next week, we finally decided to get the van to the shop. I think they were able to fix the clanging noise coming from the engine which they said was a stabilizer bar but they tried to fix the juttery acceleration and after a transmission fluid flush and new computer firmware update, they were unable to and said the transmission probably needs to be redone. They estimated that to like 9-11k, which is more than the van is worth. So, I think we're just going to drive it a little easy from here on out and try to trade it in for a new car. Not sure if it'll be a van or not, maybe an SUV, but we'll have to do that soon. He said we should avoid longer road trips, though, which my cause some issues.

Other than that, I was supposed to do some projects around the house but I've literally done nothing while Laura and the kids have been gone. I'm watching the dogs, so I've been doing that and actually sort of tired since I'm still waking up early-ish. Zero motivation to do anything! Ugh.

Our Portland trip is in a couple of weeks, so we'll have that and...flying. I don't like flying much because of the crowds and the process and everything. We also have to leave at like 7 in the morning and on the return trip, we're getting in at like midnight. Then, in the blink of an eye, school is going to be back in session. It is what it is.

We still have to talk to Molly about something. Earlier this year, Liz, when she was doing the FACTS billing for the upcoming year, mentioned that Molly wanted to let us know not to pay for anything after the PCTC tax credit came through for the kids. I just looked at the balance that was "credited" and it was like $2k! I dunno, I feel bad accepting that. I know I do a lot for the school, but it's because I like to and enjoy doing it. I've talked to Laura to maybe see if we can cut them a check or something. It just feel wrong to me.

Anyway, off to try and find something productive to do.