August 2010

Most of August was spent with the builder (and others) here finishing up the basement (we now have a family room, bedroom, bathroom, and storage room in the basement). It still has a couple things that need to be done (the knobs were wrong and had to be reordered), but it is finished enough to move and organize all the stuff. That has kept me quite busy. A couple weeks ago we hired some of the Young Men in our ward to help us move all the basement stuff that we had previously stashed in the garage and various closets in the house, back down to the basement.

We also decided to put a door and closet in the playroom and convert it into a bedroom for B. She loves her new room....and it’s really quite spacious. I was concerned that the door would look odd, but I think it turned out quite well.

M gave her second talk in church several weeks ago and did a great job. B gave a talk in Primary a couple weeks ago. She refused to practice until the day of, but still did a good job.

S decided that she was finally brave enough to get her ears pierced. After her check up in July when she was terrified of her shot, I wasn’t sure she would ever be ready. But she realized that the shot wasn’t so bad.....so maybe ear piercing wouldn’t be that bad either.

K went to Scotland for a quick trip the end of August to attend his older brother’s wedding. He left late Thursday night (his first class teaching at Chicago Kent was on Thursday evening) and was back by Sunday midday.

M & S started school on August 25th. M is in 8th grade at Jefferson Junior High and S is in 5th grade at Mill Street Elementary. (Both are in the highest grades at their schools.) B started afternoon kindergarten (dual language - Spanish) on August 27th. B doesn’t say much about what goes on during the day. I suspect that she is lost and confused. I’m sure I would be. But she hasn’t complained. I helped out in the other afternoon kindergarten class for the first 3 days and rode the bus home to help with the kindergarteners for the first 2 days. It was fun at school, but really hot on the bus.

B and S started playing on soccer teams at the end of the month. B’s team is fun to watch—most don’t really know what they are doing, but a few are good. S hasn’t played since probably kindergarten—I hope she is doing okay. They both have games on Saturday, so it should be interesting.

I picked up a watermelon at the grocery store the other day and just couldn’t decide if it looks like I swallowed a watermelon or a basketball. I’ve been getting quite a few comments about how it looks like I’m going to deliver any day now. I suppose my shape would suggest that.....but I still have 7 weeks to go.