Photos of: Nate, our neighbor Shayne and Grace at the Butte and Knik glacier, Pioneer Peak in the Chugach Range from our neighborhood ; my gigantic broccoli (store product to the left) Luke and Nate's battle armor, Mrs. Berg and Nate, first day of school AND Nate's new ride. See below on that. Also a pretty shot of some fireweed...couldn't resist.
School started last week already! Yikes. Luke is a sophomore (no first day pic of him. he's too surly) Grace is a sixth grader and Nate started kindergarten *wild cheering* I'm sublimely happy he's in school and was cheerfully contemplating a house free of children but alas. I'm now subbing long-term at Academy as a PE teacher. Yup - a P.E. teacher. Talk about a dream job. I get paid to play games with kids. And it's .4 FTE which is about 3 hours a day. The rest of the time I write. So far, it's been great!! No idea how long the job will last but seriously, who cares. Something will turn up.
Luke finished his summer at Vanderweele's and is now a millionaire. Compared to his parents, I mean. :) He learned all about processing/picking/weeding veggies, made enough for a $300 mountain bike, a new phone and will contribute to his comp ice hockey bill. Competitive hockey is a step above what he's been playing and it's mucho $$ expensive. Fortunately, HS hockey rules prohibit them from playing comp during the regular season but he'll be doing tourneys in Oct. and flying to Arizona to play over Christmas. So he'll be putting his earnings to good use helping us out with that. He's in all advanced classes in school, volunteering with youth court and has a lot on his plate. The countdown to 16 is on - before I know it, he'll be driving. Undecided if this is a good thing or not. At least he can drive himself to practice then.
Grace and Nate are back at Academy. The school requires uniforms this year - you can see them above. Nate's kindergarten teacher is Mrs. Berg. I see his class several times a week for PE and so far, it's been an adjustment for Nate to not burst into tears just because I'm in the room. *working on that* Grace was moved into advanced 7th grade math and advanced reading so she's going to have to work hard to keep up, I think. She's signed up for basketball, Nate's hockey starts in Oct. and I can hear my carpool engine revving up from here. Speaking of engines, one of our neighbors gave Nate a brand-new tiny 4-wheeler. It's adorable in a scary way. Roger lifted the battery from Grace's blue 4-wheeler to ride it around. We're going 4-wheeling over Labor Day with all three machines on the Matanuska River so it should be a blast.
Roger's job has shifted again, kind of gone a full circle from when he took his current position 4 years ago. A massive layoff has resulted in him unable to travel bc the man count in Anchorage would be too low - in other words, no coverage for the airplanes if he goes. This has caused major ripples in the main office bc Roger's worn so many hats and now those jobs aren't getting done. Right now he's supposed to stay home and NOT travel but I'm not holding my breath. I think it'll last a few months, maybe until Dec. before they hire back a person or two so Roger can resume his sked. In the meantime, I'm waiting for his schedule to not be nights and weekends. *irritated eyes* bc honestly, it's like he's not here anyway right now. He should go back to days in Sept.
Lastly, the fair is coming up. My rhubarb is, like, world record size. The kids have bugged me for years to enter the gigantic veggie contest so hopefully I'll remember to enter. And possibly snag the Guiness Book of World Records for Rhubarb. Which there isn't a record for yet. I checked. Roger and I have tix to see Garrison Keillor, which will make me Minnesota sick. (Have you SEEN the housing prices in Minnesota? They're rock bottom. Veerrryyy temping...)
