August Random Happenings

August 

A start of another school year! Ian started 5th grade, Elisa started her Freshman year at O'Conner, and Gabe his Junior year.

August 2nd

Not sure how I managed to get myself on the AZFMC board, but I was voluntold to be in charge of some award they give out. I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to do. But it sounds like I don't have to do much. I went to the meeting this day. It was fun to meet some of the other board members and have lunch. This is the only picture I took that morning. I might go to this, maybe not. But I will definitely be putting more of my students in the Festival this year. The trophies really hook the kids into wanting to do festival. It takes 3 years to earn a trophy. I'm hoping Ian can earn the 3rd or maybe even the 4th sized trophy by the time he's 18.

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August 4

I had to pull Gabe out of school to take him to his counseling appointment. I read a book during his time, and then I meet with the counselor for about 15 minutes to talk about Gabe. Afterwards, I take Gabe to the restaurant of his choice. This particular week he chose Culvers. I ordered the kids' meal and let Gabe have my custard. Silly Gabe forgets how to smile for the camera sometimes!

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I came back with a few of my Grandma's clip-on earrings that I liked. For the silver braided ring earring, I glued an earring stem to the back. For the another (not pictured) I just added a hook, and for The rhinestone one I bent a part of the clip at a 45 degree angle to make an earring stem. The stem is a bit thicker that I'd like, but it works. For each pair, I did have to rip off at least some portion of the clip.  I'm glad I was able to make these earrings wearable again! They are pretty and deserve a second chance.

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August 5

Elisa at her Young Women's activity. One of the leaders posted this picture. She doesn't go to many of the activities anymore.

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August 6

Gabe's ID card. Another fun picture!

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August 10

Elisa dyed her hair a red-ish color, from a couple of box dyes we bought at Walmart. I think the color looked cute on her!

August 22

I called around to find a hairdresser for Elisa. She said she wanted it dyed (again) but we changed our mind when the hairdresser quoted us $300. At least Elisa was able to get the haircut she wanted. I think it's called the "wolf" or something like that. The hairdresser's name was Heather. We might go back to her, who knows. She was nice and Elisa was happy with her haircut. Pricewise, a bit much though.

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August 22- Ian really wanted to go to bingo night at the school so I took him. I gave Ian $5 for a pizza dinner. We didn't get any bingos though. I left as soon as Erik came since I had my race I need to get going to. I didn't want to stay any longer anyway, all the noise was starting to give me a headache.

Her are some pictures of my much-anticipated race. And by anticipated, I mean I fretted and worried about it way too much. But I really, really wanted the finisher's medal. It was the first race in the Desert Night Race series (I wasn't interested in participating the next 2 races) by Run Your Race. I've done a few other of their races so I was familiar with the track. However, I was worried that I would be walking the race since I:1) hadn't been running much, let alone outside, 2) don't usually run in the evenings, and 3) don't run in the heat. I was mostly worried about the heat since it was forecasted to be over 100 degrees. And it was. I ended up going by myself since Erik stayed behind with the kids and the drive to the race was almost 40 minutes. Just before the race started, I dumped a bottle of water all over myself. The first half of the race I was doing surprisingly well. I ran the entire time. The second half--not as well. I walked for too much of it, but thankfully my time wasn't too terrible (at least relative to how slow I usually run). I should have taken the water from the water station at the halfway point and poured it over myself again--I felt a little too hot so that's why I slowed down. I did run the last quarter mile though. Phew. The race was over and I got the medal that I wanted. It wasn't so bad. I nice lady and her daughter chatted with me for a few minutes after the race, and I grabbed a popsicle on the way out.

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August 25

The kids made themselves really comfortable in the front room that I had just cleaned up. You can see the donation pile by the stairs, it felt good to get rid of lots of junk.

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August 26

My organ teacher brought in the cutest little kitten that she was babysitting for someone. I took this picture to show Elisa.

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August 26

After my organ lesson, I met up with Erik for lunch. We decided to try out Tommy Bahama, which was right next door to their shop. We both ordered tacos, different kinds though. It was pretty good. After lunch we browsed the shop but didn't buy anything. 

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August 30

Erik and I started the process of getting new flooring. We decided we wanted LVP flooring. I hated that orangey-brown tile so much--it was terribly ugly...hideous and out of style. So we went to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Floor and Decor. I narrowed down my choices to just a few, one lighter-toned from Home Depot and another multi-colored one from Floor and Decor. It was a completely different experience looking at the planks at the store versus taking them home. I thought I liked the light flooring from Home Depot, but I'm so glad we took it home to try it out for a few days, because it turned out to be thin, slippery, and showed every little mark. The grayer-looking flooring was much thicker, more textured, and had more colors in each plank. I know it looks gray in these pictures, but its really not that gray! We decided to go with plank B.

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