Shudder. I've had better weeks, but I suppose I've had worse weeks too. I've just never dealt with so much... vermin in a seven day stretch before. We had three infestations in our house this week (house flies, head lice, and fruit flies), plus an infestation of a different type on the cross country team (a handful of lazy whiny pants), and another type of infestation in our new yard (gophers).
Journal excerpts:
BUSY is the word! Piano lessons, home renovation decisions, early morning seminary, coaching cross country (Jeff and me), running cross country (Jay & Rose), waiting around at cross country (Amber), cross country team brunch in the barn after a long run on Saturday, a visit from family, cooler weather, and more! Here is a quick photo album from last week:
Another week has flown by in such a busy blur, it's hard to remember specific things that happened.
Early morning seminary started on Tuesday! As a freshman in high school, it was Jay's first time attending the early morning scripture study class. It was also my first time as a parent of a seminary student. Our ward holds seminary Monday-Thursday from 6:15am-7:15am at the church. We joined a carpool with two neighbors, so each family will drive the kids to seminary for a week at a time. I took the first week, which was only 3 days of seminary due to Labor Day. It has been a long time since I consistently got up before 6am, and let me tell you, it was not easy! I joked with Jay that he and I both had to get up early, but only he got the spiritual boost from it by going to seminary. Jay and I both started going to bed earlier to compensate for our early mornings. Next time the carpool rotates to our family, Jeff will take a turn driving!
The other big event of the week was our home cross country meet. We hosted the First Annual Sunburn Invitational at South Hill Park in Sunnyside on Saturday. Hosting a meet is a LOT of work! In and around all of that, there was a whole week of running, cooking, working, planning, prepping, driving, and living. Journal entry clips:
Ultimook, our first cross country meet of the season, was preceded by a busy week of grinding our gears getting back into the school routine, while simultaneously preparing for the overnight camping trip at the meet.
School started a week earlier than usual this year. The first day of school was Wednesday, August 23rd. The first day of official cross country practice was Monday, August 21st. Jay is in 9th grade (high school!!!), Rose is in 7th grade, and Amber is in 3rd grade. 3 kids, 3 schools, let's go! It was also Jay's first official week on the high school cross country team, and Rose's first week on the middle school cross country team. Since it was the start of my 6th season of assistant coaching high school XC, Amber hung out at somewhere around her 400th cross country practice (give or take a few days). Jeff began his lucky 13th year of teaching HS French and 7th season as head high school cross country coach. Ready or not, the busy days are back! Journal clips from the week:
This week was the last week of summer break. Jeff went back to work at the high school on Thursday, August 17th, so it was actually only a partial week with the true summer feel. Wildfire smoke rolled in from Spokane yesterday, and we went from a clear, single-digit air quality index (green, or "healthy") to an AQI of 209 (purple, or "extremely unhealthy") in a few short hours. We've been hovering between 191-209 AQI for over 24 hours now, and it's giving me a headache. To keep it simple, here are some bland journal excerpts from the week:
We had some good QFT--Quality Family Time early this week: we made gnocchi together for dinner on Sunday (August 6th), had the family over for dinner on Monday, and went on a hike together on Tuesday. Whenever I ask my kids what they like about our family, they almost always say "I like that we love each other." It is true, and even though there are always some disagreements in the mix, we love spending time together. Jay is about to start high school next week and I am starting to really feel how short our time is living as a family of five. I want to do our best to make the most of it!
I spoke in church today! To get into a religious mindset, here's a pretty mountain picture that I took from the Pacific Crest Trail in Chinook Pass earlier this week:
I am a type-it-word-for-word-and-read-it-at-the-podium speaker, so here's my talk:
Weeds. Walls. Walls of weeds. Walls in our house--drywall! Weeds and walls pretty much sum up the last two weeks at our house. It turns out that weeds grow whether we are there to see them or not, and the weeds around the yard at our future house grew alarmingly tall during the almost-four weeks we were away in July. There were walls of weeds all over the place! It took us two backbreaking, sweaty weeks to get the weed situation almost under control again when we got home.
The crew put up drywall on the inside of the house this week! Having actual walls up really gave us a feel for the space that we helped redesign, and it's a relief to find that we love how it looks. Walls make the whole project feel so much closer to finished. The contractor told us that he thinks it will be done by mid-October at the latest! Jeff and I slip away almost every night to go on a date-walk across the street and see the progress on the house. Remodeling a house is never something I thought we'd do, but it's fun!
After our trip to France, Jeff flew home with the kids and I got to stay in Denver to spend 6 days with my parents! As the second of five kids, I treasure my one-on-one time with my parents. I have exceptional parents and I loved my time with them. We didn't DO any extreme or earth-shattering activities during my visit, but we did enjoy chatting over dinner every night, just the three of us.
My Dad and I went on a run together. My Mom and I did our daily artwork together, and one day we even went to a local art show to view Colorado artists' submissions to a competition.
On the night when Mom was gone teaching her ESL class, Dad and I sat on the couch and talked the whole time she was gone. I felt like a total celebrity, soaking up all of this quiet one-on-one time with my parents!