September tidbits

October is well underway and I haven’t quite let go of September yet. Where did the first month of school go? Here is an album of everyday pictures from September. I used the “circles” option on the photo choices menu, but if you click on a picture, it links to a gallery where the pictures can be viewed at full size. I started doing captions for each picture, but I want the text here in the post and the captions don’t show up under the circular photos, so here’s a list of the photographed September happenings:

• September provided some spectacular sunrises, and on our one and only September Saturday without a cross country meet, I got to go on a sunrise run before heading on to the cross country team’s fundraiser, the Grizzlython. The runners collected pledges per kilometer. It was simple and helped the combined track and cross country budgets pay for a timing system.
• Marble run: Amber and I got out the marble run one day. It was a bit heavy on the physics for 8am, but we figured it out and Amber didn’t even knock it down too much in her excitement.
• Jay and Rose wore their school t-shirts for spirit day.
• Amber and I have been spending loads of quality time together. My goal this school year is to do or provide one interesting, and/or athletic activity for her each day. Sometimes we do the activities together (like the marble run), and other times she does the activities on her own (today I gave her a bucket of dry beans to play with). Pictured:
• Trampoline time together
• Amber enjoyed operating the peanut butter machine at Winco.
• We wore hats together on a morning ramble (I lifted Amber into the tree, at her request).
• Rose and Amber have matching floral leggings. I took a picture the first day they wore them together. When Rose left for school, Amber and I went on a walk over to the dust hill, per her request, whereupon she proceeded to saturate her brand new pretty pants in fine white dust. That is why I wait for Old Navy’s legging sale and buy them when they’re $4 apiece!
• On the dusty hill behind our house, Amber eventually removed her socks and shoes to get the full body experience, and she alternately ran up and down the steep hill and buried herself in the thick deep dust.
• All of that dust-digging made Amber hungry and she climbed into our funny little pantry in search of a snack when we got home.
• Jay and Rose before school again–apparently I like to take pictures of them while they wait for the school bus in the morning. I never mentioned that officially on the blog: during September, Jay and Rose started riding the bus TO school for the first time ever. It comes at 8am so it’s not too early, and I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I mean, a guarantee that they will get to school on time without the dread morning ordeal of wrestling Amber into her car seat while she kicks and flails? YES PLEASE.
• I took pictures of three messy rooms: the girls’ bedroom, Jay’s bedroom, and the playroom. During the busy-ness of cross country season, I have been choosing to spend my at-home time either with my kids or letting them play happily instead of forcing them to clean over and over. They clean their rooms whenever I ask them to, but in the blink of an eye the mess reappears. So mostly I just close the door and leave it, to protect my sanity.
• Rainbow mural picture: Amber and I hung out at the middle school when I sub-coached a middle school cross country practice one day. I liked the bright happy painting on the back of the building.
• I am Jeff’s assistant coach, and Amber is my assistant coach. She loves to pull the team water wagon.
• Awkward selfie: on September 28th, I was officially officially hired as the assistant high school cross country coach, after being finger printed and filling out my paperwork. Then I had to take four online coaching courses about things like concussions and team uniform regulations. The state requires each of the four quizzes to be passed with 100%, so I had to re-take three of the four quizzes. It was a relief to get them DONE.
• Team cross country photo: the few, the proud who showed up to run as many kilometers as they could in 90 minutes for our fundraiser Grizzlython. Jeff, Jay, Rose, and Amber made the poster and we kept track of everyone’s laps (2.3 kilometers per lap) on the poster. Afterwards, we went to a team member’s house and had brunch. These kids are a fun group. Now if only we can get our attendance up…
• Sleepover at Grama and Grampa’s house: the night before our last super-early cross country meet wakeup (4am), Jay, Rose, and Amber slept over at Grama Leslie’s and Grampa Dan’s house so they wouldn’t have to get up so early and ride the bus with us to Wenatchee (2.5 hours away). Later that day, the Whites drove up to the meet and brought our kids to us. Walla Walla Point Park in Wenatchee is a gorgeous park with a good playground and a massive sandbox (circle shaped) that entertained the kids nicely while Jeff and I finished up coaching the last few races of the day. We did the phone-in-a-baggie trick so the kids could watch a movie on the bus ride home.
• Mother/daughter girls’ night! Steph, Leslie, and I went to a local theater production of Mama Mia, wherein one of our friends had a role, and another friend sewed the costumes. We had such deeply satisfying belly laughs during the super trooper/grand finale reprise of the music! Excellente.
• Amber likes to bake with me. It is a tad stressful with her grabbing, spilling, licking, and reaching, but I much prefer it to baking alone and then discovering that Amber has painted the bathroom mirror in Vaseline again. I don’t think I could make these things up.
• My daughters give such different types of snuggles: Rose has always been so cuddly and loves snuggling up under a blanket together for as long as possible. After a good night sleep, Amber wakes up so happy that she must hug me till my eyeballs pop out, then she dashes off to another intense venture.
• My sweet Grama sent Jay, Rose, and Amber (her great grandchildren) a kind card in the mail a few weeks ago. Amber still likes to get her card out and talk about how “Grama Julie loves Amber.” It is the sweetest thing Amber does right now, besides plastering my cheeks with wet kisses.
• Ambox.
• Not pictured, but memorable: Amber likes to play animals with her cousins, and during September she started acting like a kitty more and more often around the house. It’s funny because instead of saying hi, she’ll walk up and say “meow.” When she wants something, she says “meow, meow, meow!” but it comes out in a shrill alley-cat sort of tone, and it cracks me up every time. Often she scampers away down the hall on all fours, meow-howling all the way. Amby the alley cat.
• Also not pictured: Rose was a student of the month at school in September. The recognition assembly happened to be on the one and only day she stayed home sick during the entire month, but they still gave her a coupon for a free hamburger and Burger Ranch the next day. Jay said “it’s going to be hard to be student of the month in my class this year because there are so many good kids!” YES for challenges of all types at school!
• Jay and Rose astounded me with their responsibility after school during September. They dutifully did their chore and homework, and it was smooth as butter. If only we could channel that cooperation into our morning routine…but then maybe life would be too easy…