1. Waking up in the dark and who/what is beeping at me?
2. Making lunches before I can even stomach breakfast
3. Boys that shower everyday (maybe seeing girls at school CAN be a good influence in junior high)
4. Teacher's Disclosures- between all the kids, I had to read and sign 20 different sets of rules
5. A quiet house most of the day until the hours of 4-6, which I call the bewitching hours
6. The bewitching hours-- I need like 5 of me to drive kids to activities, tutor homework, make dinner, police the video games, keep track of scouts and activity days, listen to the day's events, remember who went where, etc. (polygamy must've had it's perks as a co-op)
7. Going shopping with only a 3 year old. Ya know, it seemed like a good idea to train all the kids when they were little to hold onto the cart in the store... now it feels like 5 ball and chains... but with everyone in school, I'M FREE!
8. The kid's brains-- I had great intentions of doing worksheets and flashcards, challenging their brains with story problems.... but instead we got season passes to Lagoon, built ziplines, and daydreamed of making a watercraft to cross the Salt Lake.
9. Resetting bedtime. This has been tough for all of us to think that 9:00 is late now.
10. Having to jigsaw puzzle everyone's activities so there is minimal conflict. What happened to our long summer days of being carefree???
Although there is shock, it was about time school has started as we were all about to turn into B.L.O.B.S. (buncha lazy ornery behind-sitters)-- everything feels like we've been there and done that by the middle of August... not that we hadn't had a full summer:
1. Youth Conference
2. Scout Camp
3. High Adventure
4. Gymnastics Camp
5. EFY
6. Band Camp
7. Trips to: Logan, the Stewart Cabin, Zion's National Park, Phoenix, and a Whiting reunion campout in Arizona
8. plus we had to make the passes to Lagoon ("The Goon" as Jackson says) worth their salt, so a lot of swimming and nauseating rides (maybe I was the only one nauseated, but hey, I've got a good reason). Can you believe the kids said they wanted
to go EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE SUMMER??? (that was the first day).9. countless playdates, fashion shows, pretend restaurants, spa treatments by the girls of the neighborhood, bottle rocket experiments, tire swing and zipline installation, bounce-ketball (the tramp is under the hoop in the backyard), BBQ's and backyard campouts, paintball wars
10. Lots of swimming: Lagoona Beach, Rec Center, and the "kitty" pool in our backyard
I've decided that after reading my post over, I might be giving some of you the impression that we have a white trash backyard: i.e. zipline, tire swing, bounce-ketball, the "kitty pool".... I like to think of it as "happily used", but I realize that the summer has left me slightly dillusional...
