Back to School Sept 2-9

Saturday we needed a break from the craziness of Harvey.  I took the kids and we went to the library.  We timed it right to take a ride on the Trolley.  Doug took a break from mucking and got some things done at home and took a nap. :)

 Story time still happens before bed.  The girls often now will read to me.

Sunday we only had sacrament meeting again.  It was a combined meeting with all 4 wards that meet in our building.  We left early so that Damon could be there to help get things ready for the sacrament.  They brought in a second table and used some plates to make sure that there was enough to pass around.  It went pretty smoothly and didn't take too long.  There were about 600+ people in attendance (our average ward numbers are around 250).  The work crews left right after the sacrament meeting.  Doug went again and helped out the people living a bit south of here.

Monday Doug helped on houses again.  We didn't do too much at home, played some board games and went swimming at our neighbors pool.  I was glad they had invited us, our pool was still closed from the hurricane.  It didn't really feel like a holiday.  It's these small holidays that make me wish I was closer to family.  The bigger ones like Christmas are special enough to do on your own, but the small ones it would be nice to get together and just have an excuse to visit and have a BBQ.

Tuesday the kids went back to school.  It was a rough start - it felt like starting school all over again since they had had 10 days of break.  But by the end of the week, they were getting back into things.

Wednesday we let the kids ride bikes after dinner.  3 out of the 4 that went out crashed.  Jenna and Kaylee's were minor, but Tyler was trying to ride without hands and took a tumble over the front of his bike.  He got this nice scratch on his tummy and a good cut on his knee.

I had book group and enjoyed getting a sense of normalcy to our lives.  We talked about A Wrinkle in Time.

 Thursday I started Institute.  We are studying the Book of Mormon this year.  Doug dropped me off and then had some errands to do.  He is almost ready to start his new job.  He was going to start this week, but then they said he needed to do some stuff for HR so he will start next week.

Doug picked me up and we went out for lunch.  We stopped by Best Buy to look at laptops.  Then we went over to Home Depot and Lowe's to get Doug more equipped for mucking out homes.  He got some cool tools and I think that will count for his birthday this year. :)

Friday I went at helped at the library at the elementary school.  I was able to see Jenna and Kaylee when they came to the library.  They were excited to see me.  I'm glad that I can go and help at the school more now.  

Jenna was chosen to be the first student to bring home Mr. Bee from her class.  She read to him and played him some music.  We took some pictures and she wrote about it in a class journal.  Then on Monday she told the class about it.  She was super excited to be the first one and she really believed that Mr. Bee could talk to her teacher and that Mr. Bee was the one that had picked her to go home with.  I had Mr. Bee whisper in my ear and she believed that he was really talking to me too.  It was pretty cute.  I told her that I had learned how to speak 'bee' in college and that you had to be older to understand 'bee.'  Damon and Tyler understood and played along.  It was pretty fun.  

In the evening we had game night.  We played a new game called Fable fruit.  It was a cute game.  We didn't stay too long, everyone needed to get ready to for another long weekend of service.  We stayed up late getting Doug ready to go - loading up the truck and getting all of his tools ready.

Doug helped again Saturday and Sunday.  We did our jobs and stayed home on Saturday.  We had checked out Ghostbusters from the library last week and we finished watching that (just the boys).  Damon now wants to dress up like Ghostbusters for Halloween.  I was a little nervous to let them watch, and there were a few swear words - it had been so long since I'd seen it - but I think they didn't understand them for the most part.  I think they liked it. They go around singing the song.