First day of school: 4th gr. 1st gr. 3rd gr.

So far so good. One day down. They all had good things to say. I was so stressed I made myself sick, but they are all as happy as can be. I had no idea how hard school could be for us moms. I missed them like crazy. As soon as they got home we all sat down and went thru the 600 papers they brought home from school and I asked a million questions about their day. So glad they all LOVE to talk. Tonight I get to go to the school for the 1st grade parent meeting. Can't Wait.

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life

We have the next 3 days outfits chosen, folded and placed in order for all three kids. We have lunch supplies all ready, lunch boxes cleaned and ready to be filled with exactly what we have chosen for each one. New shoes are ready to be worn. Picture day outfits are ready. Schedules are planned.
All three of mine will head off to school tomorrow. Miah is all day this year. It will be a big day for her tomorrow.
Soccer practice starts tonight for Miah. She has never played before, so another first for her.

You may be wondering, as I am, what is Jenny going to do with all three kids out of the house for 6 hours a day? That is a good question. I have no answer for you. The first few days will be filled with; exercise, cleaning, volunteering at Five Star, teaching at Peakfast, and on my knees praying for those 3 little angels. And once 2:20pm rolls around, I will be helping with homework, listening to the adventurous stories of what happens at Horizon Elementary, making dinner, driving kids to football, soccer, and listening to little ones read each evening.

After the first few days, I may be getting bored. So I am looking into getting a job. Why not? I would like to be useful, helpful, if I get too bored I will just start shopping too much or reading all day long.... so a job would be good for me. So if any of you have a suggestion on a career field for me, let me know.

The End of Summer

We went to the zoo for the 4th time this year. The kids never seem to get bored with it. Cameron begged to ride the train. The others remember how slow and boring it is, so no one else wanted to. We didn't. They love the zoo, I love them, we had fun.

Miah has a stuffed animal with her no matter where we go, she loves dogs of all kinds, and since we don't have a real dog, she takes care of hundreds of stuffed dogs, they all have names and she rotates between which ones she plays with, sleeps with, etc. The one below is "Chewy". Chewy came with us to the Rocket Football Jamboree on Saturday, and since the football players were getting their pictures taken, Miah thought we should do Chewy's photo also. Isn't he cute?

The past few weeks have been full of football, football and football. We are also starting soccer next week and school next week. Also, Miah did tutoring all summer for reading, so we have been diligently reading and doing flashcards also. The weather is slowly changing to Fall, which makes me so so happy!!!!

A little Secret

I have no idea how many people read my blog, or who you readers are. So I have decided to let you in on some inside information.

Justin and I have caught "Beiber Fever". Yes, you read that right. Our kids don't really know who Justin Beiber is, but us grown-ups watched the movie, and now we are hooked. He is such a sweet little kid (I know now he's 17 yrs. old) but to me he seems like a little boy who sings fun/catchy songs. Justin actually is the one who got me hooked, so now we are walking around singing "Love me, love me, say that you love me...." and "One Time, let me tell you one time"

Granger Rocket Football

Tonight was the first practice. Cameron was so nervous. All day he kept asking "how long until practice?". He is a small 4th grader, playing on a 4th - 6th grade team. So this will be a big learning year. (He looks so darn cute in his uniform!)

South Bend Urban Adventure

We did it!!! Our first Adventure Race together. We signed up for the Elite Division (COED) and so we knew it would be tough. The meeting was at 7:30am, then we had 30 minutes to strategize and then the race started at 8:30am. The cut-off time was 1:00pm. We made it back at 12:30pm. So we raced hard for 4 hours. We hit all the check points!!!! and we found the Mystery Check-point. It was fun. The challenges were quite easy but the biking and running from place to place became quite exhausting.
In the end, we thought we had a chance at 2nd/3rd place, but then found out that the checkpoint at Potowatomi Zoo was for a different division and we were suppose to do a checkpoint at Potowatomi kids kingdom. So a stupid mistakes for us rookies, and the rules state that if you don't get every check-point you can't be considered to win, so even though we got 25 check-points one of them was the wrong one.
This event was really "fast paced". We never stopped to go pee or to drink/eat. We were always moving, drink as you ride. The biking is all broken up, so we biked about 27 miles but you are stopping at check-points all the time, and when you do bike you are sprinting a lot.
I wish I had more photos to show, but of course no time for that! (plus we got wet a lot, so it would be hard to have a camera with you.)

Summer: In a Nut Shell

Justin and I at the beach. I love him so!!!
The heart break of the summer, we said good-bye to our beloved Haddie. My mom's chocolate lab was loved by all, she's been around for Cameron, Jalen and Miah's whole life. Saying good-bye was not easy.
Here are a few pictures from the 3-day weekend we spent in Caseville.

My niece, Josey, stayed with us for a week in June. She attended Spring Hill summer camp with my boys. It was a great week having Josey here. She is a real sweet heart and really fun to have around. She's welcome here anytime!!!

The past month has been eventful.

In the past 7 days we have frozen warts on tiny fingers. We have become "do it yourselfers" at exterminating bees, ants and ground hogs. We have burned enough wood, branches, twigs that you would think we lived on 6 acres in the woods.

We have been to the beach like 250 times this summer. To be honest, I hope to never go to a public beach ever again. I am so dreaming of a "lake house" all our own. I love water, the sand, the sun, but I really don't consider a public beach a relaxing place to be. My family loves the beach and we always try to find the beaches with the least amount of people, but on hot summer weekends it is really impossible.

Both of the boys have learned to "do laundry". I taught them the whole system: Sort, Stain Spray, Choose what size load, etc. They are at the age that they love it. At first I decided to only teach one of them, I thought I would only teach Jalen (he's the middle child, and often the oldest does all the stuff 1st). Jalen listened so well and picked it up in one day. He did 4 loads that day and each morning he asks if he can do laundry today? He likes it so much that Cameron kept asking me to teach him, cause he wanted to do the laundry. So I decided to teach him too.

My kids are extremely helpful. They do all sorts of chores, and it is a real blessing to me. We have also done school work all summer. Miah likes it. Cameron loves it. Jalen strongly dislikes it. They are all different. All smart, but they are motivated in different ways and they have different learning styles.

Today we picked blueberries. I am freezing tons for the winter months. Yesterday I made fermented cabbage and red beets.

Justin and I took 4th place out of 30 teams in the COED Elite division for the Urban Adventure Race we were in. We would love to do more races if they were free and we actually had time to train for them.