Eye See You!

Isn't her iris AMAZING????

Books I Read; July and August

I'm behind on my lists, but let me tell ya, 2012 is a SLLLLOOOOW reading year for me.  Horrible.

Let's see July:

"Death Masks"  (Dresden Files series book 5) by Jim Butcher
"The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real" (Yada Yada book 3) by Neta Jackson.
"Peaches" by Jodi Lynn Anderson
"The Wednesday Letters" by Jason F. Wright

And in August:

"The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough," (Yada Yada book 4) by Neta Jackson
"The Queen of Attolia," (The Queen's Thief book 2) by Megan Whalen Turner
"Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt," by Beth Hoffman
"Blood Rites,"   (Dresden Files series book 6) by Jim Butcher
"Spooky Little Girl," by Laurie Notaro


Still plugging along with both the sci-fi Wizard Harry Dresden's series and the Yada Yada prayer group series.  I read one from each series each month.

I picked up with book two of an OLD series I started and then forgot about, The Queen's Thief series.  I read book one back in  February of 2011 and then did not get book 2 through Paperback Swap until over a year and a half later.  Not many copies are circulating through the paperback swap system and I'd forgotten about the series.  Ms. Whalen Turner does great work.  My only complaint is that there are NO maps in her books.  She's created an entirely mythical universe with kingdoms and land masses, and includes NO maps.

Laurie Notaro is an old favorite.  She started writing witty personal stories and I read them back in 2007.  She then set out to write fiction work.  I read her first book, "There's a (Slight) Chance I might be Going to Hell" in 2007 and just now got around to her next book, "Spooky Little Girl."  I enjoy her sarcastic writing style.  This is a story about ghost school and finding your true self, in the afterlife.  Good fun.

Parents and Letting Go...a little...kinda

So, parents of biguns.; HOW do you not freak out every time they get in the car to go somewhere alone in their vehicle?

Anyone have tips, advice, Valium, something?  Jake really had no interest in driving at all. He had friends or us to chauffeur him around.   He got his Learner's at 16, not 15, and his real license last week; he's 18.  He's been driving by himself for a week.

Monday I had a minor freak-out.  He's at the University and tells me he's coming by my office.  In the rains left from Tropical Storm Issac. On a major Interstate.  By himself for the first time.

Over an hour later, and he's not there nor answering his phone, which is a good thing. He won't answer his phone while driving.  I don't like to and he follows my lead.

But by this time, I am in a panic and trying not to show it at work. My one co-workers knows me and knows something is wrong.  I tell him what's the worry and he reassures me.

An hour and a half after I think he should arrive, he calls.  "Oh, yea mom.  I forgot I had a class at 2. Why are you crying, silly?"

UGH.  Cause I am a dork.

Cause you're still a baby in the sink and the cutest kid on the planet.



Cause you're still 8 and loving Cub Scouts with your mom.


Cause you're 13 and still fun to hang round.


Cause you're 17 and don't mind that I chaperone all your field trips.









 Cause you're 18 and know I am your biggest fan.


That's why I cry, silly.

Back to School Thrifty Mom

Well, you all know Jacob started back to school, but so did Isabel a few days after he did.

During the early part of her summer, we came across an awesome backpack in the clearance rack.  Total cost: $7. She fell in love and I went ahead and got it for her.



CUTE!

We also always get school supply lists from the school.  I have learned to never buy supplies based off the school's generic lists.   These lists are separated by grade, so every 3rd grader buys the same thing, except when classes start, the teachers send out their own lists.  After getting burned several years with supplies they never used, I send my kids (Isabel now) to school with a pencil box full of scissors, pencils, paper, erasers, glue, crayons and markers.  When school then starts and I get the list back from the teacher, then I buy what her specific teacher needs.

Total spent on school supplies (not counting clothing/shoes):  $5.49 for supplies and the $7 backpack.

Why?  Because I keep everything year over year.  Isabel has used the same scissors 3 years in a row.  Guess what?  They were Jake's when he was in 1st grade.  He's a freshman in college.  :)  This woman knows how to save.  Her pencil box was the one she got in Kindergarten.  Her folders were all new folders that were never used and returned home from previous years.  Her pencils were pencils we've had since forever.  We have a drawer full of them.  I sharpened a bunch and put them in her pencil box.

The $5.49 was spent on loose leaf paper, index cards, 3 more glue sticks (to add to the 3 she brought back with her at the end of the year last year) and three notebooks.  Her teacher also asked for a spiral bound notebook.  I went into Jacob's room and asked if he had any left over from senior year.  He had two with barely any pages used so I ripped out the pages and put that in her backpack.

Her crayons are the ones from last school year; never used.  Still look brand new.  They never used them, or if they did, she used communal crayons and came home the last day of school with her box of crayons intact.  Markers?  From last year, all intact, hardly used.

Her lunch box is the same as last year; she loves it because it's pink and has kitties, so we're good.   I bought her zero new clothes.  The girl has SO MUCH CLOTHES from my family spoiling her that she does not need anything.  The only thing we got her new were sneakers for $30 + tax.  Nike's for $30, on sale and with a 20% coupon from Kohl's.  She ruined her old sneakers playing in the water at the family reunion.  They are now her "outside play" sneakers.  When the neighbor boy comes over to ask her to play, I yell "put on your old sneakers, not the new ones!" and she does.

She's in 3rd grade now with a BOY teacher again.  Here's to another successful school year; cheers!

Class of 2016

Here's a video showing the kids making 2016 that I told you about in a previous post. I see Jake a few times, but it's hard to point out. He's in the loop of the 6; where the circle meets the upright of the 6. I can see him. :)   Bright lime green shirt.