Jenny's Thoughts: And we're off!

The school year has gotten off to a good though super-frenzy-paced start. I feel like a switch got flipped and BOOM – life and busyness and all that there is to do is just swirling around us. The next few weeks, unfortunately, aren’t going to get any tamer. A couple of upcoming weekends will be spent going to Port Ludlow to pack up and out of the beach house (which has a sale pending). Very bittersweet.

The kids are in full school stuffs craziness. They have swim lessons Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:30 until the 2^nd week of October. I start teaching my music classes (4 classes back-to-back) next Monday. We’ve been mentoring an engaged couple from church on Wednesdays. The weekends have been packed with fun activities (but still packed). The 1^st of October, the boys will start a Parkour class (to, ya know, start learning how to become ninja warriors). Kayli does gymnastics on Wednesday mornings; we go to the gym Tuesday mornings; she has preschool Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I’m toying with the idea – once this session is over and the boys are done – of having her do swim lessons Tuesday/Thursday mornings between gym and preschool. The fact is: it takes A LOT of energy to use up all her energy. Last week, she had swimming Tues/Thurs., gymnastics Wednesday morning and I took her out for a 1.5 mile run Wednesday night evening…with all that she FINALLY started going to bed better. I just got a new pair of Nike running shoes…for her.

Speaking of running, I feel pretty good that I’m starting to get more of a running routine again. Without running, I feel weird. So, basically in addition to everything else we’ve been dealing with, I’ve felt no-running-weird for most of the last nine months. Unfortunately, getting up to run is just as hard as ever…we’re sleeping like crap. Zachary is in a bad sleep phase. He wakes up EVERY SINGLE night – sometimes more than once – and is scared. He usually can’t totally explain why, he’s just scared. Some nights he doesn’t even remember getting up. He typically ends up flying under the covers of our bed and we groggily roll over, not waking up enough to get up, get him up and back to bed. The fact that we haven’t consistently slept through the night in a couple of months, definitely doesn’t help…well, anything. BUT I have managed to still get up early most mornings and have gotten out for runs a couple of times a week. I run with my friend/neighbor Tiffany. Last week, we heard a coyote howling. On Monday, we were very startled when the (rather large cousin-of-canines) came crashing through a yard and ran across the street a couple houses ahead of us to the golf course. A little bit later, he crossed in front of us again heading back to the woods. Dang, those things are way bigger than I expected!

School is going well(ish) for the boys. It’s always a transition to get back into the school routine. Matthew (now 5^th grade), for the 2^nd year, has a guy teacher, which is pretty exciting. It’s a funny generalization (but true, I’ve found), that the male teachers are usually the favorites – the ones all the kids and parents want. And, I have to say, I think, for a boy, its extra cool that Matthew’s gotten dude teachers two years in a row. Zachary has an adorable young woman for his 3^rd grade teacher – one that everyone has raved about – so it appears they’re both in very good hands!

Matthew turned 11 the 3^rd day of school. ELEVEN. And he’s SO freakishly tall – 5 foot 1.5 inches. ELEVEN and he’s only 2 ½ inches shorter than me! We celebrated his birthday with a super-packed fun weekend. We went to the little Newcastle Days celebration at the park – inflatable bouncy houses and obstacle courses, climbing wall, live music, free junk, food vendors, pony rides and petting zoo. Then the next day, we REALLY went all out and went to the Washington State Fair down in Puyallup. It was super hot that day and a little bit like Disneyland in that everyone gets all sugar-wired and wound up – yet tired – so you’re doing this very fun (and stupid-expensive!) outing and people tend to get real cranky real quick. All in all, good family fun times!

Zachary on Butterscotch