First week of school, 2010

Well, it looks like we all survived the first week. I fell asleep at 10:30 last night and didn't wake up for 9 hours, but the kids have had boundless energy and not needed any more sleep than usual. Greyson's report on his first day of 5th grade was, "Awesome! My teacher gives out Jolly Ranchers!" So now I know where our supply fee goes. He did have some homework on Thursday, but mostly the teachers have been easing them into the year.

 Ready to head to the bus stop on the first day of kindergarten.

His choice of pose.

Reece has been raring to go to kindergarten for the past 6 months, so it was no surprise that he didn't even blink this week with all the changes. On Wednesday, he and I went to a meet the teacher/see your classroom visit and while the parents filled out paperwork, his teacher read the kids "The Kissing Hand", about a raccoon who doesn't want to go back to school so his mom kisses his palm so anytime during the day he can put it against his cheek and remember she loves him. That evening, I told Reece we should remember for me to kiss his hand before he left for school, and he said, "I don't need that. I'm not nervous about going to school." And he was right. He nearly forgot to get a kiss and hug before boarding the bus, and his response after he got home the first day was, "School is AWESOME (it's a common word around here) and I love my teacher!" That's the second child for you - ready to move on way before his parents are ready for it.

Walking up to board the bus.

 

Getting back off the bus after the first day.

My first week as an assistant professor was hectic but not too crazy. I still have to sign up for benefits and get some things set up in my office and my name on my door. Oh yeah, and create a syllabus by Tuesday and figure out how to run an online course. Plus my research, of course. But I'm surprisingly calm and definitely feel I made the right choice in accepting this job. Ask me again in two months when my grant is due and I'm behind in grading and I might be singing a different tune, at least on the calmness level. I have compiled a number of things that I like better about this job and that I miss from my old job, and I'll be interested to see how long they stay true:

What I like about my new job
1) Excitement surrounding the new program
2) My large office that has walls that go all the way to the ceiling
3) Parking lot is next to my building and costs 1/10th of the parking at Case
4) More responsibility and respect and perks with being a faculty member (about time - I'm 40 for crying out loud!)
5) Being in charge of my own career and workload
6) Summers off!!!
7) Better benefits and a faculty union
8) Being the authority in my research area

What I miss about my old job
1) Being able to bike to work
2) Having a cancer center and major medical center right next door
3) Taking a month to go through a tank of gas
4) Having people around who understand my field more than I do

The last day of summer (for Greyson, anyway)

School starts tomorrow for Greyson, and Reece starts on Thursday with half days that day and Friday. We're still trying to get into a good sleeping and waking pattern, so hopefully Greyson will be able to wake up at 7:15 tomorrow morning. He'll be at the upper elementary school, and his bus picks him up at 8:15 rather than the 8:55 for the lower elementary, so it will definitely be an adjustment. This, combined with signs I'm seeing of Greyson trying to break free from Reece a bit, tells me we might be moving toward separate bedrooms for the boys sooner than we thought.

Greyson will be playing the French horn this year, as all 5th graders are required to either pick an instrument or join the chorus. We were able to borrow one from a neighbor who also spent some time giving Greyson a mini lesson, which really gave him some confidence. He also had an intro session at his school this evening, and the music teacher even got me excited about playing it! Really, I just want to get a used piano, but we'd probably have to build yet another room for it and THAT'S not happening.

So, about our garden. We came home from Michigan to this:

We don't even need to exaggerate that the sunflowers are as big as the house! (Or, more accurately, the garage.) Since then, a few of them were taken out by a storm, but we salvaged the blooms and are hoping to get some seeds out of them. Oh, and that mess in front of the sunflowers is two cucumber plants trying to take over the world. Or at least our backyard. They've even been trying to climb up the sunflowers and I have to speak sternly to them about boundaries. We are also picking whole bowlfuls of cherry tomatoes about every other day and giving them away to unsuspecting neighbors and relatives. Because we're also getting cherry and grape and Roma tomatoes from our CSA. And I've discovered that 1) I don't have any desire to peel and seed tomatoes, and 2) there aren't that many uses for cherry tomatoes beyond salads and picking and eating them right from the vine (yummy, yes, but best not to eat your weight in them I imagine). So I'm taking notes for next year that involve fewer cherry tomato plants, only one cucumber plant, adding dill and more basil, and probably not even trying peppers again. They were our only dud. The eggplants were surprisingly successful but not too overwhelming, so I might keep those. Just have to get Nick to come back and make homemade baba ganouj with them, though.

Summer, week 9, day 62

Hello, is this thing on??? OK, so it's been over two weeks since my last post, but in my defense, I've spent a considerable amount of time recently with probably half my readership, so there haven't been as many people to keep up to date anyway.

For the rest of you, I do apologize for keeping you hanging with Greyson's baseball saga. I posted the results on Facebook, but that's really all I had time for that last week in July. So, without further ado...

They won!!! Seadogs are champions of the Shaker Youth Baseball League minors division, 2010. The championship game didn't end up being played until that Friday night thanks to weather issues, but his team won that game and so didn't have to play a second one. When Greyson's coach handed out the trophies (one of his is for winning the American League division, the other is for the championship), he said Greyson was his "little man with the big arm". Overall it was such a good experience for him that we might actually consider letting him play next summer if he wants. Although we might need to request the exact same coaches and fellow players...

Now for a recap of the days after we left the baseball world. My mom, the boys and I left for Michigan on Saturday morning. Stopped at A&W in Standish for lunch (that's become an annual event) where they boys fought over who would call in the order and I almost had to take Reece out to calm him down. Luckily, that was not indicative of how our overall trip went.  Sunday we had a picnic at the beach, went mini-golfing, had dessert at Dairy Queen, and toured the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, which I encourage everyone to see if they get to Alpena ever. After spending time exploring the entire museum, Reece stated that he wanted to look for shipwrecks when he grows up. I did mention that that career might actually involve swimming, so it'd be in his best interest to not freak out for his Miss Katie lessons anymore.

Reece's improper (and downright dangerous if you're near him) form at the "dog house" hole. I must say, as much as I like this particular putt-putt course, the reason  I love it is that they have TWO shades of green balls to choose from, so there was no need for any haggling right off the bat. I think both boys had geared themselves up for an "I called the green ball first" shouting match and didn't quite know what to do with themselves so walked meekly to the first hole. Of course, they found other things to argue about along the course.

 In the maritime center, there's a set of tunnels suspended from the ceiling that lead to a slide, which is all supposed to make the kids feel like they're on an underwater dig. Last year, Reece wouldn't have anything to do with it. This year, we almost couldn't tear him away.

I have no idea what we did on Monday. Tuesday we visited my aunt's cabin on Lake Huron, then we headed to Black Lake to spend three days at my uncle's cabin. Had to go out fishing that evening, of course. Greyson and Reece managed to each catch a fish at the same time AND get their lines intertwined, all while my uncle Dave was catching his own. Drama on the calm seas!

 You want me to do WHAT with it?

 Reece was OK with holding the fish (these are rock bass, for anyone who cares) using a special contraption so he didn't have to actually touch it. Although by the end of the evening, he was holding them with his fingers.

Wednesday we spent the day at Mackinac Island accompanied by my cousin, Jackie, biking and sweating. It was probably the hottest day during our entire trip and maybe hit 85. One unusual thing that happened was the ferry going to the island from Mackinaw City took a detour and went UNDER the Mackinac Bridge! Jackie's taken those particular ferries probably 30 times in her life and said that has never happened to her before. We joked that we were being hijacked (because THAT would be a strong message to the US - take out a bunch of midwestern tourists on their way to an island with no cars, lots of horse poop, who plan to eat their weight in fudge), but I'm now thinking someone slipped the captain a 50. Bonus for us!

 Wait, where are we going??

 

Proof that we went UNDER. Greyson took the picture after he got up enough courage to go to the front of the boat where lots of other people were trying to do the same thing.

After visiting this cemetery, Reece stated that he wanted to be a person who digs up bones when he grows up and wondered if he could start here, at this cemetery. Which took us into a whole discussion on what happens when people die. Gah.

 

 

 Thursday was back to Grandma's, Friday we saw The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee performed at the Thunder Bay Theatre, and Saturday we spend time with my friend, Lynnette and her son Nathan before heading back to Black Lake for more swimming and fishing. Drove back home without Grandma on Sunday, making it in less than 7 hours. Greyson and I have been enjoying our week so far, going out to lunch with Dan and running errands and getting stuff done around the house (me) and reading, watching TV, and playing on the computer (him). Tomorrow (hopefully), I'll post and update on our garden with photos. Suffice it to say, I'm running out of recipes that involve tomatoes and cucumbers that are not salad!