Back to school!

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Tessa

Hey all! First day of school. It went super well! Yay! The kids woke up early and happy. They got themselves ready and out the door early! They both smiled for photos. Yay! :)

Eve deployed masterful delay tactics last night, asking for braids, extra cuddles, lots of love. :)

6th — first year in middle school!

8th — last year in middle school!

All the photos were silly. I had a hard time choosing just one. LOL!

Alan took them to school, even though he was working from home today. Flooring installers came again, but that story is for another day! The kids were both happy (or at least willing!) to smile for him in front of the school.

They’re good to their photo lovin’ momma!

My day started with a weezy run and moved on to a super sweaty library. I spent the morning running around (in a lovely dress and high heels! silly me!) doing tech support, getting the new Spanish teacher up and running, and trying to get the library in order. I had one class at the very end of the day. First grade. We were all hot and tired! LOL! Luckily they knew the routine!

My kiddos took the bus to DBS after school and I was happy to see them both happy! Whew! Eve had art and got to have lunch with her buddy Jonah. Lex will be doing some advanced math and hoping, hoping, hoping to be in jazz band. Both were happy and we were all eager to get home to our air conditioned house!

Only 174 more days to go!

Shopping

Posted on August 17, 2018 by Tessa

Every now and again I get this idea in my head that it’s fun to take the kids shopping. I get grand plans to take them to a bigger town, more stores, maybe even a mall! I think we’ll check out all the different stores, maybe find new fashion styles they like (they are dang pre-teen/teens already!), hang out, have fun. After today I’ve officially given the kids permission to slap me when I get this notation again. It’s never fun. I mean, it’s fun to hang out with the kids, but shopping just sucks. Here’s what today looked like. Hour drive to the closest Target. Their back-to-school section is lame and picked over (kinda my fault as school starts in a week). Their kid clothes sections are small. The clothing in general is missing way too much fabric. We were looking for long sleeves and pants, ya know, back to school clothes, but mostly found tanks, crop-tops, weird pant-like things. Eve had zero interest (thankfully!). The kids don’t like shopping, they can’t manage to find things on their own (’cause they don’t like shopping and therefore don’t try), they wander around aimlessly and get silly with each other. Really, the most fun we had at Target was trying to figure out how to attach the cup holder to the cart to hold my tasty Starbucks iced tea. We were tired by the end of that (we have zero shopping endurance), but decided to check out a nearby mall as we still had lots of stuff on our list. The mall was deserted!! Half of the stores were empty or closed (on a Friday afternoon??) and the place was just weird. We did find a shoe store and bought some shoes, but certainly it wasn’t any better than the shoe store on 12A. We were exhausted by this point and succumbed to the siren call of the candy store, which was really the brightest, nicest looking store in the whole mall! After a sugar break we headed back to the car with the plan to go to Staples and get the rest of the school supplies. Of course, we found an Olive Garden on the way, realized we were hungry, and stopped for dinner. Breadsticks galore! Finally we stopped at Staples and got everything we needed. The store was well stocked and plentiful, but no better than our local Staples. Then an hour drive home, in the rain and bright lightening. We successfully got our school supplies, spent lots of money, and used up half a day… but really we could have just hit West Leb and been done in half the time and half the money. Sigh. Note to self: we aren’t a shopping family. We drop fast! On the bright side, we do have fun together! :)

CHaD Hero 5K

Posted on August 15, 2018 by Tessa

Alan decided to run the 5K this year. Apparently he was planning to run the half marathon, unbeknownst to me, but “settled’ for the 5K instead. :) Then he talked Rosy into running it to. So guess who was next?!

I should probably start training soon. Anyone want to donate? Help the children and spur me on? :) http://dhmc.convio.net/goto/tjohnson

Alan also started doing Cross Fit awhile ago and is working hard to get the whole family involved. His intentions are good and true, but we are a lazy family! :( We’re all working on improving that. The fitness, that is, not the laziness.

Goodbye Arlo

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Tessa

We brought Arlo to the trainer/foster lady today. It was a sad/happy day. We all agreed that he would be happier there and then with a family who had space for him to run, and ideally not a family but a woman with time and space. It was hard to say goodbye though. Alro knew something was up too. When it was time to go he wouldn’t get out of his crate.

We tried calling him and using treats. It took the much loved cheese drawer opening to entice him downstairs, but he came right back up! I was able to start folding up his crate when he was out of it, so instead he tried to sit on the folded up crate. When I brought it out to the car he jumped right in and laid right down on the crate. Not knowing where we were going, but sure that he didn’t want to be left behind. We all cried.

When we got to Paula’s she did a great job taking him right over. She gave us a tour of her house (where the dogs all sleep!) and showed us the crate Arlo would be in. His crate is right in her living room next to a very sweet dog (she assured us!). She showed us the training area and where they do baths (good luck with that!) and we met lots of dogs who all wanted to play with Arlo. She had a plan to walk Arlo with one of her “greeter” dogs and then slowly acclimate him to the place and the other dogs. She seems like a wonderful and devoted woman. She said that was was contacted last week by a woman who sounds like a potential match for Alro, so maybe after a few weeks of training he’ll be headed to a forever home.

For now we will adjust to life without Arlo. A car pulled up today and we had no prior notice! I immediately looked around for the dog, then remembered. I’m currently reminding myself that I don’t have to take him out for an evening walk. It will be a strange adjustment for all of us. I hope it was the right decision and everyone, including Arlo, will be happier and more at ease.

Bye, Alro. We will always love you. <3

HPAC

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Tessa

Another year of the Hartford Performing Arts Camp has come and gone, and this time Eve got to go too! Yay! The theme was Where The Wild Things Are and they did a great job turning the sweet book into a musical show.