School started for me on August 26th.  I have classes Wednesday and Thursday nights with 9 credits total.  I don't think I truly comprehended what I was asking my kids and especially Jeremy to do so that I could pursue this.  Jeremy has been feeding kids, driving them places and being the solo parent two nights a week.  And with a smile!  This semester I am taking Instruction for Special Ed, Behavior Management I and Elementary Literacy.  The classes are really interesting and very applicable to where I am working and want to do.  Tomorrow I take my big test Praxis I.  Its this 5 hour thing that is supposed to prove I know enough to teach elementary grades and is required to graduate this program or get hired.  I have been fitting in studying for that whenever possible and will be grateful when its over (if I pass!).  So far the idea of me getting homework done when kids are at school and I don't work is working.

Girls theater classes started up along with Robyn's choir and the last two weeks of Spencer's ACT class.  So days have felt a little too full sometimes.  Because of that we played hard for Labor Day weekend!

Garion came over to join us Friday night and the kids and I headed up for the Storytelling festival that we do every year.  We were there 4-10 on Friday and 9:30-11 on Saturday.  On Sunday afternoon we took naps!  It was awesome to hang out and listen to some wonderful stories.  While we played Jeremy worked and got some things done and we all enjoyed having a weekend off.  Someone asked me if Taylor likes the festival and he truly does.  Some tellers he listens to, others he seems to sleep to and he seems to like the canyon air.  Although at the end of the weekend he is very happy to not be in his stroller for awhile.  We give him breaks of laying in the grass but its still a lot of sitting.  And we figured out to change him off in a corner where we hold blankets around him rather than trying to use the port a potty - much easier.


On Sunday afternoon the Hall's came over for dinner and we got to have a nice visit and hang out and catch up.  It seems like we don't see each other near enough.  On Sunday night Taylor went for a 24 hour stay into respite as Allison had picked Monday for her birthday family activity.  We switch years so every other year is a birthday party with friends and every other year is a family activity.  Allison wanted to tube the Provo River which we have never done.  It was awesome.  We had a great and super cold time followed up by some BYU ice cream.


Robyn was a little nervous to go but she was OK about having her tube tethered to Jeremy.  Then we took a bus up the canyon and they started talking about how you had to walk around the bridge of death and the bridge of no return.  Her eyes got really big.  Jeremy but especially Spencer had friction burns on their arms from rubbing against the tubes while paddling.  Spencer's were a bit intense but almost all the scabs have fallen off his arms now and it just looks like raw meat.  I think he was too numb from the cold water to really feel it.

Least it sound like our weekend was too idealistic let me throw in the details of getting up early Saturday to grocery shop for the day, telling Spencer and Garion to take their grumps and listen to a storyteller for an hour before talking to me again, trying to get the lawn mowed in a swim suit before we had to pick up Taylor and all the usual work that goes into a great weekend.   We have been working on being nice in our house - not sure if it helping.  I get a lot of eye rolls every time we post a new niceness quote or share our act of niceness for the day.  But at least I feel like we are working on it!

This week we got more into the routine of how school works and the different schedules.  Jeremy has spent a couple nights in the trailer with kids and then this weekend took the girls to our ward's daddy/daughter camp out.  They had a great time. 

I asked Spencer with a long list of options what our mother/son night out should be.  His pick?  "Can we please just get a big pizza with everything on it and watch The Lord of the Rings?"  So that is what we did.  And then Saturday while I studied for my test Jeremy took the girls and Robyn's friend out to the city birthday party where Allison was there with her theater group pretending to be a pioneer.  Spencer worked on a neighbor's eagle project painting fences and recalling Karate Kid sayings.  Taylor who has been sick with a cold was happy to lay there while I tried to remember what the different amendments are and what a conjunction is. 


Taylor wasn't feeling good Thursday at school and I just assumed it was allergies like Jeremy and Spencer but by the evening he was running a fever.  He gets so pathetic when he is sick.  He won't eat or drink, won't support his weight and is just miserable.  So he has been home laying in his bean bag for a few days. Jasper considers Taylor his person and has been keeping him company.  Taylor seems to really enjoy having him cuddle up every night and as yet although he will lick Taylor's hands or feet he has yet to ever scratch him or go near his face.