First week of school

In which

• Lily came down with and overcame a fever,
• Elsie fixed her seedless watermelon by embedding peas where the seeds should have been,
• Timmy adjusted to his elder sisters’ absence by adopting Elsie as a full partner in crime,
• Abigail turned 6, ignoring our all the extra gifts we offered her if she would turn 4 instead,
• Kate created and glazed her first clay sculpture,
• Gina came down with Lily’s cold and lost her ability to walk straight for a little while due to inner ear trouble, and
• I wrote chapters 4 and 5.

Los Alamos, Manti, Monroe

This week

• Lily charmed many with her big eyes and sweet smile.

• Elsie went through enough clothes to be left with only T-shirts borrowed from her grandparents.

• Timmy had a lot of fun playing with his cousin Andrew.

• Abby decided that she loved school.

• Kate found out that she may not be the smallest girl in her class.

• Gina got to see her youngest brother be sealed to a neat girl.

• I completed an interesting simulation of two lasers, a lamp, and a set of mercury atoms.

August 6th – 12th

This week

• Lily solved the Los Alamos water problem using drool alone.

• Elsie successfully used the toilet for the first time.

• Timmy, having asked whether it was the pioneers or the aliens who used wagons, demonstrated his retention of the correct answer.

• Abby got her first library card and loaded up on Dr. Suess.

• Kate read her first couple of Cam Jansen mystery books.

• Gina discovered a woman who devotes time specifically to watering fitzers.

• I wrote the first 2 chapters of a text. (Anyone want to take a peak?)

Now that’s progress

I wanted to point out how well Andrew’s doing in scouting.  Check out his progress since May.  Wow!

weeks 5 and 6

We didn’t have internet last week.  (Changed from Qwest to Vonage, mostly for free long distance.  Somehow our DSL got cut off at the same time.  Since Vonage works over the web, we had no phone and no internet for a little while.)  Anyway, I didn’t write up a summary for last week and it might well all blend in with last week.  So this week I’m allowing myself 2 things per person.

•  Lily started grabbing for things (especially her mother’s food-laden fork).  And she got shots.
• Elsie has started insisting that she can do everything “myself” and taught herself to light matches while we were camping.
• Timmy has begun making grand and threatening declarations using the word “behold.”  Like, “Behold, I will sit on you!”  He also managed to chuck his Dad’s tie three benches back during sacrament meeting.
• Abby finished her second set of books and moved on to a third.  She also learned what it means to be bossy while she plays with other kids and has started trying to avoid doing it.
• Kate sang several stories involving a lot of people gasping while we drove in the car and found a set of rocks that was perfect to climb on.
• Gina got her back-to-school shopping done for the kids and got a new calling.
• I won second place with two partners in a business plan and presentation competition.  I also got peed on by a 5-year-old girl standing over me at about 1:00 a.m. in a tent.