random stuff

Well, this is just some random stuff that has been collecting in my brain and clattering around begging to come out . . .

Everyone is getting ready to go back to school. Sarah starts her nursing classes on Monday. She has classes Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Summer 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008 . . . and then she is done. Dave took her to buy her textbooks on Monday. They cost over $500 for 27 books. I know it sounds like a lot of books but what the school did was break down many of the text books into smaller and more manageable segments. She actually starts her clinicals on September 6 or maybe September 13. She has classes Monday through Thursday, clinicals on Wednesday and none of her school days go later than 11:50 except for the clinical days which go to 2:00. Plus, she is off Friday. She has told her employer (she works at a local IGA which is really nice since the owner is always on site and is a very nice guy), that this semester, she could work Monday and Thursday afternoons and all day Friday and Saturday.

It was just yesterday that we held her for the first time . . . ten weeks old and such a tiny little treasure. Gosh. I'm getting teary!

Lindsey starts 8th grade the same day. She is very frustrated with the knee high dress code issue. It really isn't worth the battle . . . but her biggest angst is over gym class. She is becoming a charmer, inspite of herself. I have to remind myself that she is only 12 (she skipped a grade). It helps that she is as tall or taller than most of her friends. Her current reading goal is to finish Gone With the Wind before school starts. On vacation, she read the entire Anne of Green Gables series.

This past summer she participated in a string camp at Baldwin Wallace College. She received a letter the other day asking her to join the Youth String Orchestra at BW. Practices are Saturdays from 1:00 to 2:30. I left the decision to her and Dave. I have classes on Saturdays from 8:00 to 5:00 so it would fall to him to get her there and back. She really wants to do it and Dave doesn't mind driving her. I spoke with her violin teacher yesterday evening. She suggested that they do their private lessons at noon on Saturdays. She is a graduate of BW and therefore has use of their facilities to teach privately. Cool stuff. The only thing that Lindsey suggested that if she did this that she not join chess club this year. Agreed. They are also going to do Math Counts, even if Dave or I have to moderate it. But that is another story.

Zachariah starts first grade on Wednesday. He goes to a different school than Lindsey. When we were shopping for Lindsey's school supplies, he was disappointed that he didn't need any. He attends the school that Dave teaches at and since it is in a poorer area, the school provides all the supplies for the students. Anyway, I told him he could pick out one thing to buy. He wanted markers, so markers is what he got. Of course, we have packages and bundles of markers and pencils, paper and multitudes of other school supplies since Dave is always watching out for a deal for his kids and his students.

Dave has been attending a variety of meetings and seminars in preparation for this school year. He is going to be Zachariah's teacher. It should be interesting. I asked him if he thought that there would be any problems with him being Zachariah's teacher and he said he thought not. Zachariah might get some teasing but he will nip that early on and Zachariah is a pretty tough kid. Right now there are 14 kids registered for his class but many parents in the area wait until after Labor Day to register their kids. They are soooo stupid.

At my class on Saturday, one of the administrators mentioned that for the Financial Management and a couple of the other coures, we will need to bring laptops. Well, my laptop Zachariah has been using for his stuff and it really doesn't work anymore. So today I bought a Dell. Hopefully, I will get it sooner than later. I didn't add much of anything to the basic computer so it isn't a huge build for Dell. The funny thing is that as I was ordering it, I kept thinking of all the yarn and "knitting add ons" that I could buy with that money!