Blogging by the Bay on my Birthday

Well, if you had to pick something to do on your birthday, wouldn’t that be it? I’m sitting on a bench by the bay in Bellingham blogging. It is a little windy, but it is a sign of the season. It is fall and I love fall, my favorite season. I don’t know why I like fall so much. I love summer, but summer is too busy. In the fall, I love the smell of the chill in the air and leaves falling and branches blowing. I love covering up on the couch and drinking warm tea and coffee. I love that we get to start a new routine. Fall lets me relax a little…slow down and enjoy. I love fall. Don’t get me started on the colors. They are rich and warm and cozy…I’m still waiting for those.

For my birthday Mike let me take the day to go wander Bellingham by myself. I’m so happy to have the time to go and enjoy and not even feel a little guilty about it. It is truly nice. I stopped by a rubber stamping store, and then went to Fairhaven. I’ve decided this little shopping area is my favorite spot.

I got myself some fish and chips at the cute little double-decker bus cafe. I also went to the fancy toy store and bought myself a game that I’ve wanted forever.

Then, I drove just a little ways down the rode to Boulevard Park which sits right along the water and has a coffee shop right in the middle. I sipped a cup of coffee and read and relaxed.

Then I went out into the park and that is where I sat and started writing this…at least part of this.

So, speaking of fall, the girls have gone back to school. It was iffy there for a moment whether we’d be getting back or not because our teachers voted to strike. They must have come to a fair agreement after that vote, because the girls only missed one day of school before things got back to normal. Their first two days were only half days, then they got a three day weekend…but the next week, they got serious.

Tegan is in the 3rd grade, but she is in a 3rd/4th grade split class this year. She has the same teacher as last year, whom she really liked. I think she’ll be a little ahead of the game being in these split classes. She progresses along almost at the rate of the upper class. She is a smart cookie and becoming very mature.

Kelby is in 5th grade this year. I hear this is when they get serious about grades and studying. I hope she does okay. They actually switch teachers throughout the day in this grade. That is pretty smart so that each teacher only has to focus on one area. She seems to be excited about that process. Her best friend is in her class again, so we are all happy about that for her.

Anika didn’t start class when her sisters did. They “assess” the kindergarteners the first week and then start them the second week of school. Her teacher is Mrs. Gosset. She started a week later on Wednesday the 8th. She was so ready. I was impressed when she asked how many days she had left until school started. I told her five and she went off and wrote the numbers one through five (some were backwards) on a piece of paper. Everyday when she got up, she would cross off one number. She did that all on her own!

She did great on the first day. I left her without crying, but shed a few tears on my way to the car. This is my baby. She’d growing up. It is so weird. I was glad to have Bible study that morning to keep me from feeling sorry for myself.

The next day Anika got to ride the bus to school in the morning. She was so excited to do that as well. Since she has big sisters to take her to her classroom, I wasn’t too worried for her. She doesn’t get to ride the bus home until this coming week. Here’s a picture of her first bus ride…I didn’t get her in the photo, but I guess you get the idea from my reflection waving good-bye and taking a picture of my baby.

Well, let’s see, what other exciting things are happening around here? Oh yeah, the day before my birthday Tegan made these yummy cupcakes. We saved them and used them as my birthday cake.

For dinner on my birthday we went out to Olive Garden. It was a long wait to get our food and we didn’t get home until after the girls’ bedtime!

I got to go to lunch with Debbie, Heather, and Melissa for my birthday this week too! Can you tell that going out to eat is my favorite! I just love Mongolian Beef at this Chinese restaurant.

 

Anika had three real days of school this week. She will be going every day for half the day. I’ve been working hard on setting up stuff for our Girl Scout troop. Being a leader is very exciting to me. I hope the girls like it as much I do! I’ve also been learning some new web design stuff and really love working on it. Life is taking on a new look for me. Now that I’m done being in charge at church and Anika is in school, I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with my time. I don’t have a hard time filling it up!

Today I got to go to my church breakfast and Mike ran 20 miles. Kelby and Mike went fishing for salmon this afternoon and are still gone. I wonder if they caught anything?  

The rest of August

Well, again the days have passed us by so quickly. School is supposed to start this week, so we’ve  been filling up the last few days with fun. However, come to find out last night, our teachers have voted to strike, so we might not be going back to school after all. The girls and I are so disappointed. I told the girls yesterday that I would home school them if the teachers went on strike, but I guess they really don’t want me to…that was what had them worried the most when I told them about the strike this morning.

On the third weekend in August I got to spend the night camping with other Girl Scout leaders on the Friday night. We did some talking and planning and I got really excited to get our year planned. I’ve been reading all my leadership books and materials ever since. This is going to be a fun adventure! I suppose you can look forward to more posts on our Girl Scouting adventures this year. Anika gets to be an official Daisy this year too!

On that Saturday evening we ventured out to the Skagit Speedway because Janicki sponsered the evening and we got a free family ticket. We didn’t expect that the girls would enjoy it as much as they did! It is a loud and dirty race track, but the races are high speed and intense. I even enjoyed myself!

On that Sunday Michael and I celebrated our 12 anniversary! We had a lovely lunch after church in LaConner at the Prime Rib and Seafood restaurant there. We enjoyed watching the boats and imagining owning one someday. I love shopping through LaConner.

On Monday we went to the Creek Park. We haven’t been there for ages. Our plan had been to go to the church pool, but it was closed, so this was our second option. It is good we did though because it was on our list of things to do before the end of summer. My friend Jennifer and her daughter came too after we had a yummy lunch together.

The park there has been totally renovated and has new play equipment, so that was another bonus! The girls tried to catch little fish, but found nothing but water bugs.

On Tuesday, Kelby’s best friend’s mom came to pick her up and took the pair of them on a fun birthday adventure for Taylor. They got to take lessons at a local horse farm. I know her mom has some pictures that I’ll have to get from her. The girls had a great time and even got to trot the horses and ride without anyone guiding them. They even got a tshirt to commemorate the event. Lucky girls! They even got to go swimming that evening and sleepover too!

The next day, the girls got to attend a workshop at the Burlington-Edison Parks and Rec called “I’m Peer Proof”. They learned friendship and refusal skill so they could stand up to others at school. Tegan, Kelby, and Taylor got to go. They seemed to learn a lot, but it was a long day for them…9 am to 5 pm!

That evening we went to Great Grandpa Lohman’s house. I had a book club meeting and Mike had to run, so I took the girls to Grandpa's and had dessert and watched them play a game of Fasttrack. Then I left them with him and went to book club. Mike ran from our house to his and Grandpa brought them all back to our house. It was a great way to visit him, get Mike his running, have the girls babysat, and I got to go to my meeting.

On Thursday we went to the church pool again and on Friday we went down to Children’s for a dentist appointment for Kelby. Tegan got to go to birthday party sleepover that night.

On Saturday Mike ran another twenty miles and when he got back, I had the trailer packed so we could go camping. Our weekends are all taken up it seems, so we have to settle for just one night trips, but this one was very nice. We went to an old standby location, Newhalem, after we tried Marble Creek up the Cascade River and it was full.

Yesterday we had a friend over and went to the church pool again. Today we rode the Skat bus to the mall and walked over to the pool. We had that adventure last summer and the girls remembered and wanted to do it again.

  The girls all got their hair cut for school too in the last week, but you can’t really tell in these pictures. They look cute and ready to go.

Wow, writing it all out makes me realize that we didn’t waste a day of our last two weeks! I think I’ll give myself a break and not worry too much about entertaining the girls now even though school isn’t starting like it should. I hope we don’t miss out on a ton of school because we’ll have to make it up over breaks or next summer. I hope they can come to a satisfactory agreement fast.