And We're Off!

So school started for reals this past week but more on that in minute.  We've been having other kinds of fun too.  Our neighborhood artist started a cool community thing- she painted several rocks and hid them around the neighborhood for people to find.  Then you had to re-hide them or paint and hide your own.  We did a little of both and it was super fun.  We found the first rock- "have faith" on one of our walks with Ginger so of course we had to make a trip to Michael's to buy special paint and coating spray and then go out and hide the rocks but it was all good because that meant several hours without electronics.  Win, win, win mom says!  A couple of our rocks were found and pictures were posted on the neighborhood Facebook page, so that was fun to follow.  It's a great little neighborhood!

So then, school started.  Waaa, waaa, waaa.  We had a half day on Thursday so we could get class schedules, lockers etc and then went for real on Friday.

This was the first year we had to travel between each class and I was more than a little nervous about being late, not being able to find my class, showing up to the wrong class etc.  When you look at how tiny the middle school is (it's really just two courtyards), mom kind of wondered what I was worried about but it's been literally decades since she went through the trauma of middle school, so she probably forgot what it's like.
Probably the most exciting thing about middle school is the fact that we get lockers!!!  Oh my goodness, we spent hours shopping for locker accessories.  I ended up with a white board, copper pencil holder and a disco ball.  It literally took the girls an hour to leave school on our first day because we were all comparing lockers, setting up lockers, figuring out what other accessory we MUST have.  Meanwhile, the boys were long gone...

After the first day, we went out to lunch with several of my friends to celebrate.

 My first full week went pretty well.  I'm really jazzed about all of my classes so far and I like all of my teachers- even the dreaded Dr. Schaub isn't so bad.  I have my first project coming up for history.  We have to make a tool from pre-historic humans using only things they would have available to them  I have decided to make a spear.  Just think about that for a moment.  A spear.  We have to find a 5' long stick, a sharp rock and then make rope out of yucca and then somehow get them all to stay together.  Mom is really looking forward to this one.....


On some notes besides school.  Mom has resorted to acupuncture to help with her sleep issues.  She's had 2 sessions so far and has noticed some improvement but she not to keen on the tea.    It's pretty bad but her acupuncturist has already noticed improvement with "less wind" in mom's constitution.  We are all hoping mom becomes less windy.

Grandma Sue bought me a bath bomb making kit.  I've really gotten into bath bombs.  They make your water super soft and it smells nice so I decided to make my own.  They turned out pretty good and I tried them and they actually worked!

Saturday was national dog day so we took this super cute picture of Ginger to celebrate.  Isn't she adorable??!!

And finally, we had a quiet, kind of boring day on Saturday so mom made some Challa bread.  It was relatively easy to make except for the top braid slipping off the bottom braid while it was rising but it tastes really, really good.  She made French Toast for breakfast on Sunday with it  and it was fabulous, even if she says so herself.

So that's about it for us for the past two weeks.  We'll catch you soon!

Last Gasps of Summer

Well.  Here we are.  Three and half days from the start of school.  Definite mixed feelings here.  I'm kind of excited to start 6th grade with all its new adventures but not looking forward to actual school. I got placed into Honors Math and it comes with a whole list of scary sounding expectations (like up to an hour of math homework and extra work on the weekends and over breaks) but I decided I should do it because "I like engineering and I need math for that."  Mr. Walker's heart is going pitter-patter right now!  And it turns out at least 4 other of my girl friends are in the class as well.  Take that Google engineer!

So, lets talk about the grand finale of my summer.  It was super fun!  I spent 4 days at a Nike Softball camp at the University of San Diego with my good friend Ella.  I was originally supposed to playing on the 10U teams but since I'm already playing 12U here, dad got me moved up to the younger 12U team.  I really loved it.  We were encouraged to be independent, responsible and energetic and I kind of embraced that and continued it into my regular life as well.  Which makes going back to school a little bit easier.  But the best part, besides being roommates with Ella, was winning the Coaches award.  One player per group gets it and I got mine because I played hard and pitched really well against the older girls.  I was super happy about that- I haven't won a real award for my softball skills ever and it was pretty cool.  ( Mom here- she had a grin on her face the rest of the day!)

Ella and I both were pretty exhausted after camp on Wednesday (so many dang stairs to walk up and down!) so we went our separate ways for a bit.  We headed back to our home away from home at Chula Vista RV park which sits right on the bay.  Mom and I took a 2 minute walk down to the beach and the water was so warm that I got right in because "YOLO".  If mom had her suit, she would have gotten too but she isn't as "YOLO" as me so she just got her feet wet.

On Thursday, we met up with the Healy's again, this time at Coronado Island.  Ella's grandma has a condo walking distance from Hotel Del Coronado (or the Del as we can now call it) beach so we met them there for an entire day of beach fun.  We were literally there all day.  We parked the RV, walked to breakfast and then back to the beach.  We had a great time.  Ella, her little brother Hudson and I found crabs, clams, did some body surfing, went on a super long swim around the rocks with Mr. Healy and at 6PM we decided that what was needed after a long day at the beach was to walk to dinner.  As you may imagine, I was an absolute wreck by this time and was barely suitable to be around during dinner.  And then after dinner, Mr. Healy decided to take us a night time walking tour of the island.  (The Healy's have a lot more energy than we do).  We finally got to bed about 11 PM that night and slept until 8 the next morning.

Because we were all still kind of tired from our beach marathon, we spent a quiet day at Balboa Park in the Natural History Museum and came home and just lounged around which is good for vacation.
On Friday, we went to the San Diego Safari Park and it was pretty cool.  We had a little more energy that day and it was a good thing because the RV park was having its annual "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" party.  Free food and cheap drinks!  The whole park came out to party and you haven't seen a party until you've seen one at an RV park.  We actually a good time and it was a nice way to end our vacation.

This weekend, we headed down to Sonoita (about 45 minutes southeast of here) for the Bad Decisions Campout at Arizona Hops and Vines.  Southern Arizona is wine country and every year, this winery opens its property for a night and there are food truck, wine and beer tasting and just general merry making.  It was amazingly beautiful and green from all the rain we've had the last few months.  The daytime was kind of rough because it was so blasted hot and humid and the flies were ridiculous.  The kids spent all day at the slip and slide while the adults melted in there chairs praying for clouds and breezes.  Finally about 5PM, they got both and miraculously, they all came back alive. At that point, we all headed up to the main house to do some wine tasting, bought  few bottles of wine, hit the food trucks and spent the evening watching the amazing sunsets, playing corn hole and tether ball and actually getting a little bit chilly.

We were up early on Sunday.  Mom wasn't feeling fabulous- maybe something to do with the wine the night before so dad did most of the packing up.  We were home by 9:30 and spent the rest of the day showering and napping, getting ready for Monday.  I still have 3 more days of vaca so I'm going to enjoy them thoroughly.  I'll update you next weekend!