August 21, 2018

(click here for today's pictures)

• I stuck carefully to my breakfast schedule this morning. Graham wasn't too pleased yesterday when I deviated from the lunch schedule. So before my people were awake, I had cinnamon toast in the oven and eggs frying on the stove. 
• We all ate our breakfast and quickly started on our school work. I had told the kids that everyone had to be finished by 12:30 today. Reagan didn't have anything at all to do today so just wandered around and played on her ipad some. 
• Everyone else did pretty good with their work. I somehow stayed caught up today and didn't feel as swamped as I had the day before. Campbell and Anderson were the last ones to finish, but they diligently worked until they had finished. 
• Nonna and Pops brought over lunch for everyone this afternoon. They brought pizza, chips and cookies. My kids gobbled everything up. I think that I should start ordering lunch every single day. 
• Once they left, the kids finished their chores. We then did some more reading before working on another one of our Jr. Ranger books. Right now we are doing one every week to catch up on the ones from our trip. I think that when we are done with this, we will start with books from other parks that we haven't visited. Maybe we will just do one of those a month though.
• At 2:20, we loaded up and headed to the dentist. I had books packed and was bracing myself for a tough afternoon because Whitman ha been a bit fussy all day long. Almost like he was sickly or tired. He did get over it as we were walking in though.
• We sat down in the waiting room, and the receptionist called me over. She said, "Tara, we don't have ya'll on the schedule." Do what? I knew that I hadn't received any texts and emails. But the appointment was on my paper calendar and my phone. It was no big deal though I felt like an idiot!
• Now, tonight when we did arrive home, Robby did look at my last years calendars and there on the last page was a sticker from the dentist with today's date on it. I had showed up on the right date, though I don't know what happened to my appointment. In case you are wondering, we do have an appointment scheduled for December and one already scheduled for May. 
• So we had to find something else to do until the pool opened at 4. Our first stop was of course, Dairy Queen. We have only one more visit! Today as I pulled up to order, a man asked if he could take our order. I began with, "I need to order 7 mini blizzards." As soon as those words left my mouth, our lady worker friend shouted, "hey gang!" She pretty much knows our orders, and this time she remembered all of the kids names except Anderson.
• Next stop was to Academy to look for shoes. Reagan and Graham could use a new pair. Keaton and Campbell also thought that they needed some. Unfortunately, we didn't see any that were in our price range. 
• Then we went to Whole Foods. The kids had never been so I told them that we would go and find something that we had never had before and buy it. Those kids didn't really understand my quest for something like "star fruit" or "okra." Instead they tried to get my to buy every candy or cookie in the store. They were indeed all organic or natural and of course we had never eaten any of those. 
• We finally settled on dried strawberries and brioche bread. Once we picked those out, we headed on to the pool. We were pretty much the only ones there most of the time. Robby came with supper when he had finished with work. 
• The Kamps showed up so the kids had folks to play with. Robby did get in the pool, but it was too cool for me to even act like I was going to get in the pool. We were there for 3.5 hours which brings our total to 42 visits and 98.5 hours spent at the pool. I am pretty pleased with that total, though we still probably have a few more pool visits left in us. However, I am getting a bit ready to unpack my swim bag and get it out of the floor of my closet.
• Once at home, it did take forever to unload the cars. Then the kids started on their showers. There is lots of excitement happening because Robby has mentioned the kids getting to invest in stocks soon and there was even a hint of an allowance for the big 3.