I can't believe how this summer has been flying by! Since my last post was over a month ago, I figure its time to get caught up. I'm going to do a few specific posts to follow up on previous ones, but this is just a general rambling first.
The past month and a half have been kind of crazy. Our oldest has had a rough time, losing his job and just not doing well medically/emotionally in general. Right now we are trying to find a program at the U of U Neuropsychiatric Institute that may be a better fit than what we've been doing for many years, which is meds with counseling. We are just waiting for an opening for an assessment. He also was supposed to be taking two credits this summer through electronic high school, yet they decided to revamp their system at the beginning of summer break, and we just now were able to put in course requests.
Alyssa hasn't been too busy-an overnight yurt/boating trip with youth group (Nick did this as well), some babysitting, a few dance classes, and hanging out with friends. The lucky girl is leaving for 10 days in San Diego with her grandparents soon!
Chad is already back in school! He started 1st grade July 27th.(The older kids don't start until the last week of August) Hmmm....maybe there is some connection between my last post being near his last day of school and this post just after he went back......Anyway, I'm having a bit of a rough time with it, it goes against all my homeschooling spirit to send him to 1st grade for SEVEN hours a day! We've always said that we would treat each child and each school year individually and do what is best for the child/year. Well, for Chad, who has no siblings anywhere near his age and is very social, this should be the right thing. Also, it is Nick's senior year and he needs a lot of help-there is a lot riding on getting a diploma, and school is tough for him. Already, although he has been tired, Chad is loving his class (lots of kindergarten friends in it), and his teacher seems great-a man teacher this year! It just seems that the summer was SO short for him, and we never had time to take any quick trips or anything. Maybe in October when he has his first track break for the month. Chad's short summer break was fun for him-mostly riding his new big bike, playing in the sprinklers, and playing with neighborhood friends. We did squeeze in two sessions of swim lessons, VBS, and a day camp for a few days at the dance studio, where he learned some clogging and tumbling.
My health has been kind of up and down during this time. Some flares and some days of feeling well. I'll do a separate post soon on the latest developments.
Our family did have a nice Saturday hike up to Donut Falls in big Cottonwood Canyon a few weeks ago. It was a harder hike than we thought it would be, but the waterfall was really worth getting to. We brought a picnic lunch and enjoyed the cooler temps and cold creek water!
Hot-our house! Our A/C broke at the beginning of summer, and even though we kept our home warranty, a lot of what needs to be done is our responsibility, and we are considering not fixing it at all. Way too much money. We have a portable swamp cooler that helps, but with our floor-to-ceiling west-facing windows in our great room and super-high ceilings, most days our main floor is between 90-100 degrees by afternoon, only dropping down by late evening. Our basement seems to be somewhat cooler. Needless to say, we are eating simple, microwavable and crock pot dinners instead of using the oven or stove.
Coming up, I'm planning on posting an H1N1 update, and a sleep apnea one as well.
