Updates

1. Jr. High: (to me the most important update) -- Bryce LOOOVES jr high.

I could not be more thrilled.

First day of jr. high (and nearly too cool for pictures of it)

He says he likes every single one of his teachers (even the twenty-something math teacher that his friends says is hot which made Bryce gag...and me laugh).  He also likes his gym teacher who rudely told Bryce not to be a smart mouth when Bryce corrected the teacher's pronunciation of our last name (which is admittedly tricky, but still makes me want to raspberry in the guy's face because he got snotty with my boy...thankfully, Bryce handled the situation more maturely than that). 

My little boy is loving school, and I am loving that!  I hope it stays like this for a good, long time.  And thanks to all those who have made this a great experience for him so far.  You have quieted this paranoid mother's heart.

2. Summer Reading:  We made it!

It was a bit of a scramble at the end (of course I sort of cheated and when we couldn't reach up on the wall anymore because we were all too short, I decided since we hadn't filled to the top of the door frame which was my original challenge, we would just fill the whole wall below the lip of the stairs which was much more reading than before, which I secretly loved...I know, mean mom!).  But we did it!  Every child read at least 10 books, most read lots more (we have one little anti-reader so 10 was fabulous for him).  Now we just have to plan our reward activity and it will be a done deal.  Awesome!

Our picture doesn't look like it is so many books, but there are tons and since the little kids were limited to 3 books a day on the wall, it is a good lot of reading for the older ones. (Turns out there were 250 something total books read in 7 weeks...pretty good if you ask me.)

(Notice the funny little lip in the middle of the wall.)

 3. Our Garden:  We are harvesting!  Hooray!

At the moment our attention is focused on our green onions (aka scallions).

Somehow our green onions seem to have gotten their roots on a bunch of steroids because they took off this year and became GIGANTIC!  I've never had that happen before.  They are always healthy and plump but these guys are more than three feet tall and many of their tendrils are thicker than my big toe.  Weird, but still tasty.

I learned a few years ago that you can chop up green onions, put them in a zip seal bag and throw them in the freezer and then you have garden fresh onions all winter, so we did that.  After filling six bags we decided that was enough.  We still have more than half of a 10 foot row of green onions left.  Yea, they're that big.  If anyone is interested in inheriting some onions to use or chop up and freeze, feel free to come on by.  You can take all you want.  I'd hate to waste them, but I never imagined they would be so huge, they haven't done that before.

Parker chatting it up with an onion.

all chopped and ready to bag and freeze

 Also, my pumpkins are beautiful!  Did I ever tell you that I love my pumpkins?  I do.  They are beginning to dot the entire garden and have even tumbled into the neighbors yard a bit (no one minds, we have great neighbors).  They are patiently plumping themselves and preening until closer to Halloween.  Love it!

 4. Crohn's:  I probably should have kept my mouth shut.

I was worried that saying the "r" word out loud (the one that rhymes with "free fishin") would jinx things.  I have lost 4 pounds in the last week which under normal circumstances is fabulous, but unexplained weight loss is what started me on the road to my diagnosis so I am a little concerned.  Maybe it is nothing.  I notice twinges in my gut now and then, but that could be nothing.  I am so attentive when it comes to my intestines that I notice EVERY TINY THING so even nothing can seem like something.  Thankfully my joints are getting stronger (I can now take brownies out of the oven one handed although it still takes two hands to remove a lasagna...baby steps).  I'm going to stay on the "everything is fine" band wagon for the moment and hope that that is true.  We'll see.

5. Last (but surely not least) The Husband:  Still love the man.

This is what he brought me on our anniversary.  I love them.  Sadly they are dead now.  That's why I took a picture.  He is busy soccering away with the girls high school team for the next month and a half so we don't see him as often as we would like, but that's life.  We still adore him and are grateful for all that he does to take care of our family.