Summer Vacation End and School Started

We are into our second week of school by now.  I am still in process of getting our schedules solidified for the year.  Eric and Rubie are pretty much set.  Though they have been tired and are missing free play time they settled back into the school schedule pretty easy.  They were ready to have new things to do and see their friends again.  They have karate on Mondays and Wednesdays right after school.  I have moved them from Kid Champs class up to the Junior Basic.  The class is a little longer and with older kids.  Rubie I think will be the youngest.  This class should help them improve more.  Eric has scouts on Tuesdays and guitar lessons on Saturdays.  Rubie came home with a flyer from school wanting to sing in the children's choir.  I'll see if we can make that happen.  All of Sam's friends are starting preschool with Marsha Saetrum.  If he was potty trained I would have him enrolled too.  I'll see if I can't get him potty trained by January and maybe she will have an opening for him then.  I'm still figuring out volunteering at the school too.  I'd like to be able to have a set time each week to go into the kid's classrooms.  Rubie has Mrs. Bingham.  I really like her.  When we went to Meet the Teacher day she knew all the kid's names as soon as we walked in the door.  She had memorized their names and pictures, and well enough that she recognized the children.  Her classroom is so well set-up and she has a schedule set out for the whole year already.  I went to the classroom one day last week to help on the first day she had them reading scriptures.  She knew that the children would need help navigating around the scriptures.  I also stayed for the math lesson.  I really enjoyed her teaching.  She is a really great teacher and really cares about the students.  I love how she has her classroom organized and managed.  Rubie has already had a hard time with one little boy who sits next to her.  She has her feelings hurt so easily when someone says she is weird or something similar.  And yet she throws out those terms so often and easily.  I have talked to her about either not caring what Colt thinks or how she can be kind to him and make friends with him.  She doesn't seem to like either idea.  Last week on the second day of school in the afternoon Rubie had a really hard time emotionally she just wanted to go back to 1st grade, to what was familiar.  She spent the afternoon looking at her notebook from 1st grade, notes from Mrs. Soderstrom and her year book.  She was teary and emotional all day.  I remember Eric being like that.  For a couple weeks he was anxious and unsettled in his class.  A good hug and talk from Mrs. Soderstrom helped.  Mrs. Davis did a good job at really winning over his love though.  It is not uncommon for the children to want to go back to their previous class.  It became comfortable and familiar.  I have no doubt in a couple weeks Rubie will love her class and her teacher too.  She also needs to make a friend.  There are two girls that she knows from Kindergarten and 1st grade classes, Brooklyn and Kennedy.  I know they like Rubie and would play with her if she would play with them.  Rubie has said that she eats lunch with Reid, Eric, and Camden.  I hope she is also playing with her girlfriends at recess.  I worry about her.

Eric's has Mrs. DeSoto.  She seems so great.  She missed the first week of school though because she had some cancer removed on her leg.  We met her the Friday before school started and the substitute, Mrs. Brinkerhoff.  She has substituted at the school for awhile and I think most of the kids already knew who she was.  Though Reid or Camden are not in Eric's class I think he is happy in it.  When we looked at the class list he knew all but 2 of the children.  They both have been getting their math homework done at school which is great for us in the afternoon.  That just leaves reading and guitar practice for us to do which is totally do-able.  I had one fight with Rubie last week about doing math.  She was so bratty I told her that I was going to have her see a therapist if this was how she was going to approach homework.  I told her I was not going to put up with that level of disrespect and attitude when I knew she could do her homework, and even do it without me.  I told her how it would take up one of her afternoons after school.  That scared her a little and I hope made her think about her behavior.  While I have no idea how we could pay for it, I will take her to a therapist.  I do think it will help her.

We had a full weekend this last weekend.  Scott's cousin Stephanie Ellis, her daughter Haylee got married.  There was a family and close friends dinner on Friday night.  It was a wear all white affair.  It was held in the backyard of one of their neighbors.  It was beautiful.  The yard was decorated so lovely and with everyone in white it looked amazing.  Saturday she was married in the Payson temple at 5 in the afternoon.  It was a beautiful ceremony and Haylee looked lovey in her long white dress and no shoes.  There was a reception at the same home as the dinner but we decided to skip that and just take our family home.  They had all the little kids where white to the temple and she gave the boys lavender bow ties and the girls a flower head piece.  The pictures are going to look so adorable.

We are looking forward to Back to School Night on Thursday night and an all parent meeting.  Friday we will be headed to Goblin Valley to camp for the weekend.  The Jarvis' will join us for at least Saturday night and maybe Sunday too.  That should be very enjoyable.  Scott has been working a lot.  He has had some open houses and busy things with school starting as most of their clients are students that come with new semesters.  He is in Cedar City again today.

I have Ezra all day today and will pick up Reid and Link with my kids.  Sam went to Connor's to play but I need to go get him now.