The Death of Summer

It is the day that has spread dread through our home for weeks now. It has caused moans and whines out of seemingly brave children. It has even caused my normally chipper Lauren to stop smiling. Yes, it was the first day of school.

Normally, the kids and I look forward to school. It sounds sick, I know, but it breaks up the boredom of summer. The kids get to start sports and see their friends. But for some reason, no one was really looking forward to it this year. We had such a fun and relaxing summer that it is difficult to force ourselves back into a routine.

The kids woke up early. Cade had to be to early morning football practice at 6:15, so he was out of the house pretty quickly. The girls and I got up to read scriptures, get ready and take pictures. Cade got home about an hour later and grudgingly let me take a couple pictures of him.

Lauren is starting second grade with Mrs. Moreno. She is so excited to have her as a teacher. She wasn't too concerned about who was in her class, as long as she got the teacher she wanted. Things went pretty well for her, until the bus ride to my class. She ended up riding the bus for a full hour before they brought her to the Jr. High. But we think we have it worked out for tomorrow. Lauren gets pretty freaked out about change, so we have to rehearse tough situations like bus rides. Luckily, she knows the bus driver so things should go well. I don't know who I am trying to convince-her or her nervous mother.

Sydney is in 8th grader now. She thought the day was incredibly boring. She figures that they are eighth graders now and everyone should know the rules and we should just get on with the program. She does have friends in all of her classes, so she should survive. Actually, she will probably never look up from her book to even talk to anyone. She caught the reading bug about the end of sixth grade, and hasn't stopped ever since. Cade is a Junior this year. I can't believe it. Only two more years to have the kid at home. It makes me sick to think about, so I just try to ignore it. In typical boy fashion, he didn't have much to say about school. He likes his schedule this year, having most of his hard classes in the morning so that he doesn't miss them when he leaves for sports. He did have a few things to say about practice like, "I hate Morgan." (the coach) but I think he is just sick of running.



I'm just as ornery as the kids about starting school this year. I've got a busy, rough year ahead of me. But even more so, I just miss watching Law and Order reruns. Oh, the injustice of my life. . .

Flowers, flowers, flowers

Boy, I have had a surprising week. On Monday, I returned from a trip to Flagstaff to find a bouquet of flowers in my front room. It was going to be my birthday on Wednesday, so I thought maybe my sweet dad had them sent. When I opened the card, all it said was "Heavenly Father wants you to know that he loves you". Nothing else. I was so shocked and touched. I have know idea who sent them. And I'm not sure I even want to know. It seems like it is one of those things that you just have to promise yourself that you will "pay it forward".


Wednesday, which was my birthday AND the my first day back at work (Rrrrr!) I was presented with another beautiful bouquet of flowers. This time it was from my dad. He always remembers special occasions. I sure appreciate him.

I've got skills

In fact, I've got crazy, mad skills in the fine art of night crawler hunting. I honed those skills as a young girl, pouncing on the fat suckers down at the old High School. My dad would keep an eye out for irrigation day, and then that night, he would take me and Kellie down to the school. He was in charge of finding them with the flashlight and then one of us would slam our hand down and then slowly pull the worm from its hole. Actually USING the worms for fishing wasn't high on my list of things to do-but night crawler hunting-that was one of my favorite times.

So tonight, Ryan and I headed out to hunt night crawler so that we can go fishing tomorrow. We had a rough time finding a place that had been irrigated, but we lucked out when we drove past Quinn and Michelle's house and heard the water pouring through the garden and out on the lawn. (They were out of town--sorry guys. But I did check to make sure the water was going where it needed to before I looked for worms.) Anyway, it was as fun as I remember. Even Ryan had to bow down to my superior skills.


We took Syd and Lauren along with us. It took a little while, but Syd caught on, and was even doing the two worms at a time maneuver. Lauren was in charge of collecting the worms and putting them in the jar. We all had to admit that it is addicting, pitting your skills against such a small minded creature-which is probably what the worms are thinking. . . But, finally, we tore ourselves away. When we got home, we put them in the fridge where all good fishermen keep their worms.

Which brings me to a horror story of my poor mom's. When she was newly married, my dad got some worms and put them in the fridge to keep until he went fishing the next day. Well, sometime in the night they escaped their container. So when my mom got up the next morning to make breakfast, she opened the fridge door to find worms hanging from every nook and cranny! Needless to say, I checked the lid on our worms a couple of times already. Now we just have to see if they will catch some fish.

UPDATE: Let's just say that the night crawler hunting was more successful than the fishing. . . but I did get a nice tan.