July 28-30 ~ Rudy went to the ASBOA conference in Ft. Smith. We laughed (him included) about how psyched he was to spend 3 days at a band conference. He enjoys the time with his colleagues and always comes back from the conference with some new teaching strategies, so it's really not funny. But, come on...how can a band conference not draw a few giggles?
August 2 ~ Rudy started back to work. Summer band was HOT this year with temps in the upper 90's and even into the 100's.
August 6-8 ~ My mom came up for the weekend. We went to Branson on Saturday and shopped for 12 hours straight. We spent the night there and came home on Sunday. I got lots of nice clothes to work in...THANKS, MOM!
Jan and Bill came over on Saturday morning. Jan watched the kids while Bill & Rudy played golf. They all spent the evening together. On Sunday morning, Bill & Rudy went to Fayetteville to get the craft armoire that I picked out (2 months early) for my birthday. I couldn't pass up the deal, though. Now I have my very own scrapbooking space in our bedroom that I can close off when I'm not working. Yay!
August 11 ~ I grudgingly took Nola to daycare for the first time since June so that I could go up to my new school and start unpacking my stuff. I transferred from Westside to Reagan this year and I now have a big room to work in. Nola did fine at daycare, but didn't sleep all day. I ended up taking a white noise machine for her naptimes and it has helped some, but she's still not napping much. In fact, she's so worn out on the weekends that it's all we can do to keep her awake!
August 12 ~ My first official day at my new job. It's always hard being the new person and I'm still adjusting.
August 15 ~ We went to Silver Dollar City with our friends Jake and Patty Dickinson and their 3 boys. They were kind enough to offer us their "bring a friend" free passes, so we enjoyed a day at the amusement park without spending a fortune. It was great to meet their kids!
August 17 ~ Mom and Mr. L. came up and spent the night on the 17th because Rudy and I both had to be at work that evening and didn't have anyone to keep our kids. They even brought dinner with them, which was wonderful!
August 18-22 ~ Caleb went home with Mom and Mr. L. on Wednesday (8/18) and stayed until the 22nd. He got to do all of the things that he loves to do at LaLa and Pops' house: fishing, boating, swimming, compost hauling, fixing stuff, etc, etc, etc. Rudy met them in Ft. Smith on Sunday to bring Caleb home.
August 19 ~ First day of school. That's about all I have to say about that.
August 21 ~ I took a break from almost nonstop work to do 2 things that I dearly love: photography and scrapbooking. Rudy and Nola spent the day together while I went to a photography class (finally learning how to really use my awesome camera) and then spend the evening scrapbooking with Stacy.
August 22 ~ We went to the Sunday School open house at church to try to find a class that we fit into. We think we've found one that we like and we're going to keep going to try to meet more people and really "plug in" to a group in our church. The only problem with the plan is that Sunday School plus worship service means that Nola has to be in the nursery for 2 hours. Well...there's only one nursery worker and there were about 10 babies. When I stuck my head in the door to check on Nola after Sunday School, she was sitting in a swing crying. Her bottle was in the swing with her, but the nursery worker (bless her heart) was tending to waaaaay too many babies at one time and couldn't feed Nola. I picked Nola up and took her to the service with me. We lasted about 15 minutes and decided it was just time to go home. She was fussy and even in the cry room we couldn't concentrate on the service, so we bailed.
August 23 ~ Rudy started graduate classes to get his certification as a principal. This semester, he's taking the introductory class. He should be finished in 2 years.
August 24 ~ Rudy had band and I was a single parent for the 2nd night in a row. I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow. I think I was asleep before I even got in bed at 10:30. But - I did manage to get both kids fed, bathed, played with and safely to bed. I also started doing Zumba on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in the music room at my school. There are a few teachers there who said they would do it with me, so that really helps me get some exercise in before I pick up the kids.
August 27 ~ We went downtown to Frisco Fest Friday night. It was really disappointing this year. There was less to do than last year and there were twice as many people. The good thing was that we ran into one of Caleb's classmates and his parents, so Caleb and Michael got to play on the caboose for a while. We enjoyed visiting with Michael's parents too. By the time we left, I was really frustrated with the masses of people and trying to push a stroller through the big clumps of teenagers everywhere we turned was aggravating. Both kids were asleep about 10 minutes after we walked in the door.
August 29 ~ Hey...that's today! This morning we went to church again. We decided to try to contemporary service since it's earlier and might be more feasible with Nola's nap/eat schedule. We started out all together in the worship service, but Nola couldn't make it. She got really fussy/tired, so we took her back to the cry room. We couldn't pay attention for anything (the sermon is a total blur...) so we took her to the nursery. There were less kids in there this week so we left her. We finished the service and went to check on her when it was over. I changed her diaper while Rudy took Caleb to his new Sunday School class. Once Nola was settled playing on the floor, Rudy and I went to our own class, which we really liked. We're studying Max Lucado's book, Fearless. I'm looking forward to it. Plus - one of my sorority sisters and her husband are in the class, so we already know people. Bonus points for not being total strangers!
This afternoon, we have a play date with one of Caleb's friends, Brady, who is moving away this week. I'm sad to see him go. He's one of the sweetest kids in Caleb's class and I really like his mom. We're going to go enjoy one last play time with them before they move!
