Swim & Dive

 Libby and Sarah added dive to their fall lineup.  It's been super fun to watch them improve and try something that seems so hard (and scary!) to me.

They love the dive coach.  Sarah continues to enjoy and go to swim.  It's been tougher for Libby to stay motivated through two practices every day.  She has often skipped swim, especially since there are also evening wrestling practices she can go to.  But Libby keeps swimming in the meets, and keeps improving.  

Sarah has missed both of the meets that I've been able to go to, as they were on the first two Tuesdays of choir.  She went to both of the Thursday meets which I missed.  Ugh.  Darn teaching.

But I have been to two of their dive "meets" which just take place at their dive practice, since the two pools where they have had meets so far don't allow diving.  This next week I'll get to see them both swim and dive.  I'm so happy that my students have instrumental on Tuesday afternoons (2:45 - end of the day).  I leave and go to swim meets and then come back and finish my work.  

I need to upload some of the dives to youtube and add a video of each girls best dives.  Maybe at the end of the season...

Our Dawg Pack

It's been a good Husky season so far.  You never know with a new coach and a cobbled together team.  They've got things to work on (hello penalties).  But this crowd of fans has had a blast at the first 3 games.  Highlight is that for Husky games we (obviously not me, I'm too busy doing home improvement projects) can now walk to the light rail and take it down from our house right to the stadium.  Bravo public transportation!  Finally that HUGE car tab fee we pay is paying off. 

 

Seminary Starts tomorrow!

 I was so excited for seminary last year, and....it was humbling.  It turns out it's really hard to compete with a warm bed.  But I did love teaching seminary and all the awesome learning I did about the Savior and the gospel.  We've got a new crowd this year.  Hopeful for more on time arrivals and a fresh start in our new space (downstairs) where there's a dedicated TV (so we don't have to grab one from the library every time we need it.)

Also, I picked up a second calling.  Nursery!  Pretty excited about my 2nd hour of church :)

Trish's Projects

I haven't had a good home project in awhile.  Except for organizing.  And I actually did like it that way.  I was bummed/not bummed when I found out the retro check wouldn't come until after I started school.  I'd just have to squirrel it away and wait for next summer.  But of course, I'm not that patient.  And I've been waiting YEARS for some of these projects.  

Project 1: New carpet on the stairs and upstairs hallways (and Ben's bedroom).  This carpet came with the house.  And it wasn't new when we moved in.  It was already quite old and a bit stained.  And we've worn it down even more...even if it was amazing carpet and cleaned up nicely. But this project led to several sub projects that have kept my chiropractor in business over the last few weeks as I've been weekend warrioring.  

Sub project 1: First up I painted the upstairs halls with the kids' help because I didn't want to keep the color of the accent wall with the new carpet. This led to painting all of the halls upstairs.  Because.  EW. Gross.  I haven't been looking closely, but it was nasty up there.  Sarah and Ben and Ben's friend Story helped with this, and that was amazing.  It's great to have kids old enough to help. 

Sub project 2: I started looking at the sides of the stairs.  They were VERY dinged up and in need of some love.  What better time to do that than when the carpet is going to be replace.  And conveniently Libby's friend Ben was in need a side job to pay off a minor (ok major) speeding ticket.  I told myself Ben would do the heavy lifting.  Until he couldn't come over yesterday and I ended up with the sander in hand.  Again I told myself, just during the commercials of the Apple cup!  Until it was over (very awful game) and I just went after the sanding.  Thank you Salon Pas patches for keeping me functional today.  

Sub Project 3: Purchasing carpet.  We picked out some good samples yesterday (and I do mean good--Derek wants really high quality carpet.). My friend Jenn is going to help me pick the color.  It may be ready to install before our houseguests come for Maren's wedding.  We'll see.

Sub Project 4: Refinishing the handrail?  No--I'll let my contractor do that when he comes to do the bathroom...right? 

Sub Project 5: This week (mostly Saturday) I'll patch and paint in all my spare time, and get the carpet actually ordered. 

Almost ready to paint.  Just need to fill some holes and dings. 

We've got the samples. 

A little extra time at Home Depot and looked at tile...I think I'm going with a Herringbone in the kid bathroom.  Why not? 

You would not believe how many staples were in these stairs.  That carpet was NEVER going to budge.  Also, notice one cracked stair.  Ugh. 

Anyway, chaos abounds around here.  
 

And We are Back in School (Yay!)

I am actually pretty excited to be back in school.  But also, the stress is descending.  It's busy.  And only going to get busier when we start seminary. 

But it's the atmosphere of growth that I love. Here's a little synopsis of everyone's first week. 

Libby had a rough first day.  And by that I mean she slept through all her alarms and didn't go to her first day.  So she's working on strategies to get herself up more effectively...and having lots of time to do it because she can't use the car for anything but school and practice until she has gotten herself up 5 days in a row and delivered to me her plan in writing.  So far I haven't seen the written plan.  But she was up the next few days.  I am 100% done with waking her up.  Time to figure it out sister.  She only has 2 classes at SW and then her running start classes start later in Sept.  But they are only on M/W.  So she'll have no classes on Thursday.  She's got one possible job lead.  But since she wants to be an elementary school teacher--I've got work for her to do at school.  So if she doesn't find something else, I'll have her put time in at school with me.  I can use the help and she can use the experience. She's still struggling with the breakup...which I can sympathize with.  It's hard to end a year and a half relationship (maybe I hadn't mentioned the breakup on the blog?  But it happened 2 weeks ago now...)

Ben had a great first week. He was so happy to be a WEB leader. I thought I got a pic of him in his WEB ("Where Everybody Belongs" 6th grade orientation leader) jersey, but I guess not.  Here's the end of first week ice cream celebration.  Double scoop of blackberry! He was so happy to see his friends, and so happy he has rec sports.  Let's go 8th grade! 

Buddy confused that we are all leaving him. 

Sarah looked amazing on her first day.  Her hair is awesome. She and Libby are doing both swim and dive.  So they have practice from 3-6 every day (with a drive from one pool to another in the middle.) They are both really liking diving.  Also, the dive coach found out Sarah is lifeguard certified and offered her a job! So she may be working on early release Wed and Saturdays! 

I decided to get the blonde highlights out of my hair at my back to school haircut.  It is emphasizing my gray!  And my hair is so thin I started on a new collagen/biotin supplement.  Hopefully that helps.  It is wet in this pic, so it's not as bad as it seems.  But I'm overall feeling great.  (Well, some headaches from my painting project the last two weekends.  But I'm done now--had to repaint the upstairs hallway before we get new carpet.)  I have really big class (30) compared to the last few years (closer to 20.)  I've been spoiled by my small classes. It's amazing how much more wrangling it takes when you add 9 kids (I have a 2:1 boy to girl ratio too) to a room. But I'm excited to get going.  It's going to be a good year. I need to take some pics of my classroom theme for this year.  I'm pretty excited about it!  I'm also super excited to be doing an AP World Study group with Sarah's friends.  My textbook should be coming this week.