Back to School

The kids went back to school in the middle of August. Hallee and Wyatt started at the new school, Shoreline Middle School.  Wyatt was sad that they didn't have a 7th grader day where he would get to stay home because the school is new to all of them. 

Hallee was nervous to start middle school.  She has been in Trinity's class every year since first grade and they didn't have any classes together, they don't even have lunch together.

Hallee was excited for her classes. She has a full year of choir and dance.  

Wyatt is not a fan of school. He tells me all the time that it is ruining his mental health, ha!

He is also not a fan of me taking his picture.

I love that they are only a year apart in school and are in middle school together. I think it helped Hallee to have Wyatt there to show her the ropes for the first few days.  

I might have followed them for a minute on their way to the bus stop to snap a few more pictures.  Wyatt gave me the look that told me it was time to go back home and let them go, ha! My work schedule is great because I get them off to school before I leave for work. It's nice because I feel like I have some quality time with them in the morning. I sit in the front room and straighten my hair while they eat breakfast.  They are usually pretty chatty in the morning, so it's nice I have that time with them.

I worried all day about Hallee and hoped she was having a good day.  She came home happy and said she had a great day.  She has friends in a lot of her classes and eats lunch with Alicia. I was worried about lunch because she is in second lunch which is mostly 8th graders because she has dance 4th period.  Hallee has become friends with Alicia in young women's and she is in her dance class, so they go to lunch together and eat lunch together. 

I had to take another picture on the second day because she looked so cute. Hallee is enjoying school and is excited that she is making new friends and enjoying her classes.  She has hard classes so she has a lot of homework.  The homework overwhelms her sometimes, but she is doing great.  I'm so grateful!

Jonah only has one class on A days. He has student government 2nd period and parent release the rest of the day.  He has a full day on B days. He still loves high school.  He doesn't necessarily love the classes, but he loves the social aspect and all the fun activities that come along with high school. He has had Keith's car to drive around while Keith has been out of work, so that has been hard for him.  We can drop him off on his full days, but the day he doesn't have a 1st period we are both at work so he has to walk to school.  I know it's so hard for him to be dropped off all the time now instead of being able to take himself, but he doesn't complain. It is really hard to get everyone where they need to be while Keith is at work. We all miss that extra car! 

I can't believe Jonah is a senior and will be eighteen next week.  This is going to be a great year for him.

We had to say goodbye to Caitlyn at the end of August.  Look at my beautiful girls! Luckily Hallee has adjusted, and this goodbye was not as hard as last year.  She is anxious for Caitlyn to come home and visit though.

It was a relief to have easier goodbyes this time.

Keith and I drove out to Cedar City with Caitlyn. I drove with Caitlyn and Keith drove the van. I loved having that time to visit with her.  I feel like we haven't had a ton of time together this summer because either she was at work or I was. Caitlyn is in a new apartment this year.  It was so much better moving in.  We backed the van right up to her door and unloaded in no time. It was much easier since she was on the ground floor!

She is in an apartment with 3 other girls, very different from 10 last year. 

She is excited to have her own room.  Blakely is in her apartment and then there are two girls she didn't know who share a room.  She likes her roommates a lot!

We helped her get moved in and then took her to dinner and to Walmart.  She was starting to feel nervous and it was hard to say goodbye.  It was so much better than last year though, but it will never be easy to say goodbye to my kids.

Amarie lives really close to Caitlyn.  They were planning on getting together after we left and that made me feel better about leaving Caitlyn.

Caitlyn sent me these pictures of them. I'm so glad they have each other down there. Caitlyn is enjoying being back at school.  She struggles with her classes and is always overwhelmed with all the homework and memorizing she has to do. Nursing is not an easy degree.  This semester she has Medical Anatomy and Chemistry and they are both so hard.  She keeps plugging along though and she is doing much better than she realizes! We sure miss her though! 

August Happenings

 

We loved having Matt, Lori and Elena here for a few days for Elijah's wedding. Elena is amazing at doing nails, so Caitlyn was excited to get her nails done.

Lori bought some puzzles for mom. She has had fun doing those. 

It's fun when we can all get together at mom and dad's and visit.

We all love watching Clara and Zariyah.  Everything they do is so cute.

Zariyah has the cutest personality and she is so entertaining.

Hallee has been saving up and was excited when she traded us for a $100 bill.  She broke that a couple of days later because she wanted to pay $15 for fast offerings.  She has a heart of gold!

Me and the girls went to Clara's first birthday party.

I love spending time with Mel's family!  It's so fun to see them all with their spouses and the cute babies.  It's still crazy to me that they are all grown up and starting their own families.

Mom was having a very hard day and couldn't stop crying.  It's so hard to watch her suffer so much. Alzheimer's is such a cruel disease. Caitlyn is so good with her. She just held her hand and wrapped her arm around her and helped distract her. 

While we were at the party Erin texted me to see if Hallee was coming to Amanda's party. I was sure it was on Monday, but I double checked the invitation and sure enough it said Saturday.  Poor Hallee was so sad that she was missing the party.  I decided to leave Clara's party and rush her over so she could at least make it to half of the party.  I felt so bad, but Hallee was so nice and forgiving. They ended up extending the party, so she got to be there for more than half.  I was sad we missed Clara's party, I was excited to watch her eat cake and open her presents.

Football is in full swing.  We love going to the games every Friday night.  The views are amazing.

We are trying to soak up every moment of Jonah's senior year.  He is playing great!  The team is doing well in their region games, so hopefully they will have a good playoff season this year!

Me and Caitlyn before Elijah's wedding. She went early with me to help with pictures.

Hallee needed new clothes for school and she looked so cute in them!

I keep getting allergic reactions. My lips still swell, but now my eye has started swelling too.  It's so frustrating and embarrassing. Linus walked into work and immediately asked if my eye was okay and I said, "No Linus, my eye is not okay." 

After the swelling goes down I get really itchy and I get giant hives all over my body. It's very uncomfortable.  Someone at work told me that her daughter went to the dermatologist for something similar and he told her to take an allergy pill every day to build up her allergy wall that fights off reactions.  I have been doing that and it has helped.  My swelling is not bad, it's barely noticeable and I haven't been getting hives.  We finally have insurance because Keith got a job. YAY!! He started with Sunrun a couple of weeks ago.  We were so excited to find out that benefits started day one.  It might have just been from the stress of not having insurance because it has gotten a lot better since then. Keith is so happy to be back at work. It's definitely not his dream job, but he's hoping to move up quickly.  We have been very blessed through this time.  My family has been so generous and thoughtful and we haven't gone without anything because of them. I am so grateful for their love and generosity.  I'm so grateful that we are back to work and feel like we are moving forward again instead of stuck in limbo.

Matt and Lori offered to use their points to fly me out for Labor Day weekend. That was so thoughtful of them and I was so excited. I flew out Friday after work.  I was so excited when I left work. It felt like I had been racing towards a finish line for so long and I finally made it.  Keith had accepted the job by then, so that weight was lifting.  I was so excited to go relax and unwind for the weekend.

They gave me the royal treatment.  We went to Freddy's after the airport.  On Saturday I woke up and there was a drink and a breakfast burrito waiting for me.  We hung out in the pool for a while and then we got drinks and dinner and watched a movie.  Sunday we went to church and relaxed all day. It was really rainy so we couldn't get back in the pool.

I didn't take any pictures, expect for at Freddy's. The whole weekend was a dream.  I loved relaxing and spending time with them. They sure know how to make me feel special.  It was amazing!

We had a Texas Roadhouse gift card so Keith took the kids there for lunch while I was gone. They loved that! 

I flew home on Labor Day.  Matt came back with me.

We had a family meeting with a social worker up at the U of U Alzheimer's unit. She was so good and explained things so well.  It's great that mom has a team of doctors up there to coordinate her care.

Mom fell over Labor Day weekend and fractured her collar bone.  Poor mom, she just needs a break! Dad is so loving and takes such good care of her.  They have always been a great example of a loving marriage.  I hate that they aren't enjoying these years after all of their hard work and sacrifices over the years.  This is not what anyone wants, but it's what is happening, so we just have to deal with it.

We all help as much as we can, but we can't take this heavy burden from them and that is so hard. Mom seems to be progressing very quickly.  It's so hard to watch.  We are just trying to do what we can to make her as comfortable as possible.  They are trying to get her anxiety under control. I feel so bad for her, anxiety is so hard and exhausting. It is all consuming and so uncomfortable. I hope and pray that can get better and she can have some peace.

Caitlyn and I went to see grandma and grandpa so she could say goodbye before she went back to school.  She sure loves them. 

Ballroom Competitions

 

Wyatt has been loving ballroom.  He's excited to be on the ballroom team this year.  They had a camp at the end of summer break and had their first competition a few days before school started.

His first competition was at BYU.  He only did one event, the cha cha.  These ballroom competitions are crazy.  There is so much hair gel and make up! Everyone is so good and very dramatic with their facial expressions and movements. 

Wyatt and his partner looked great! 

They got called back to the finals.  Wyatt was really happy about that.

They took 7th place.  Way to go Wyatt!

Here he is with the Shoreline team.  They have all become such good friends. Wyatt is always hanging out or on the phone with them.

Wyatt was very excited to place in his first competition.

Last weekend Wyatt had his second competition. 

He competed in the samba and cha cha.

They got called back for both of them.  He was very happy about that.  He said most of the kids competing have been in private companies for years.

They didn't place this competition. Wyatt spent the whole day there on Saturday.  He had fun hanging out with his friends. The competitions post the times for each event and they are very punctual.  It's nice that we know what time he will dance. His first dance was in the morning and his second one was in the evening.