I love school!

If you would like to check out Scott "Steffans" click here. This is his little video that I was searching for the other day and couldn't find. He's beginning to be a local celebrity! HA HA!

What a nice and quiet day I had today! I love school!

Instead of riding my bike around the Tom O'Leary path, I went to Biolife to donate plasma and make a little money while I was at it. It went much better this time around.............I did not have any near-death experiences! I also got an extra $10 because my friend, Amy Walker, is now going to Biolife on occasion and filled out a card saying I referred her! Thanks Amy!

The kids weren't happy after school today when the neighbors came over to ask them if they could come over and swim in their pool with them. Emma begged and begged and BEGGED, but I couldn't give in. She lost her friend privileges for today because yesterday she promised she wouldn't throw a fit when it was time to come home from their house, even if she was only able to stay for a few minutes because we had to run out to my friend Kara's house to pick up some sweet corn they picked for us at her Dad's farm near Minot. Her fit was on a much lower scale than Gage's (thank goodness!), but she had one nonetheless, so she lost her friend privileges. I don't have to tell you why Gage lost his. I had initially told him that he was not playing with friends all week, but I changed it to just today. That's more of a punishment on myself than anyone else! It's also really hard for me to let one go and not the other, so it worked out in my best interest to have them both home this afternoon, grounded from friends. It wasn't any fun, however!

We have quite a bit going on this week and Scott leaves tomorrow and will be gone for a couple of days for work. There is a PTO meeting along with a Parent Open House at school tomorrow evening that we need to go to, so we're going to meet my friend, Sherry and her kids, for supper at Subway, then go to the meeting at school while the kids play together on the playground. We will have Ethan and Kasey (the kids I'll be picking up at school) before and after school on Wednesday, and Emma also has a birthday party on Wednesday. Gage has soccer on Thursday and there is a going-away party that we are invited to on Thursday. And there is yet another get-together on Friday that I'm not sure if we'll be able to make it to. Whew, I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!

On Friday, Gage brought home his first homework. It is a worksheet on the moon for science class. They are supposed to go outside every evening around the same time to observe the moon in it's different phases, and record the days that it is waning and waxing, the new moon, the full moon, etc. The homework assignment is due near the end of September. I have issues already with this homework assignment. I do understand they can't do it at school since they go to school in the daytime. However, my ultimate goal is to have the kids in bed around 7 pm and it is still daylight at that time here in North Dakota this time of the year! I've been stressing about this assignment. I don't want to DO the homework for him, but I also don't want him staying up late to record the moon phases. Here's the real kicker..........even I wasn't able to stay up late enough to see the moon the past few nights! I have no idea what time we are able to see it, but I was up until 12:30 Saturday night trying to get a picture of it for Gage to see. I went to bed to read for awhile and then check again and I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer (thank goodness these Olympic games are over!). Same thing happened on Sunday night. I asked Emma's teacher about it this morning because she has a son in 2nd grade as well and she said they had problems with that with her older son too, when he did it in 2nd grade. I think it's great to study the moon in science class, but maybe they should do it at a different time of the year when the moon is at a different place in the sky, where we can actually see it at a decent time of day!?!?! She told me they had to just "wing it", which is what I guess we'll be doing. She said they saw the moon in the morning a few times and recorded what they saw then. That is what we'll have to do, because I'm not keeping Gage up until wee hours of the morning to look at the moon! Man, I just can't wait until he starts bringing home math homework! (Hopefully 2nd grade math isn't beyond my abilities!?)