Back At It

 This will probably be a short update this week.  I don't even have many pictures to share, which is pretty shocking for me, but this week has been a whirlwind.

Back to school is always a tough time.  Everyone's practices have started up and that is just the beginning.  This week also brought two curriculum nights, a church meeting, and Jeremy leaving on a business trip to Seattle.

On top of that, I also subbed two and a half days this week.  I taught high school PE, kindergarten, and middle school special education.  Its pretty safe to say I got the whole range of experiences.  So far subbing is a lot of things, but boring isn't one of them.

I was very ready for the weekend by the time it rolled around.  Unfortunately, for me this weekend was full of soccer, volleyball and baseball tryouts.  Maybe someday I will have a relaxing weekend.

My only real photo from the week came from the girls' curriculum night.  I snapped a picture of CC's "At Ten" poem and self portrait so the night wasn't a complete bust.

Sports!

 This week (and actually last week too), we are back into the swing of sports.  This year, for the first time ever, we have three kids in three different sports and it is not easy.  Merrick is playing basketball, Carrigan is playing volleyball, and Elsie is playing soccer.  Somehow, last weekend, we managed for both Jeremy and I to make it to both Elsie's first soccer game and Carrigan's first volleyball game.  This weekend Merrick had games too and we weren't so lucky and had to divide and concur.  I took the girls to their games and Jeremy took Merrick to his games.  Oh, one other thing, Mer isn't officially on a team this fall, we are just piecing together practice with a few other kids and joining other teams for games.  This weekend he ended up in a Gresham jersey.  I am trying my best to keep my lunch down.

Also this week, I started a new chapter in my life.  I was approved this week to start subbing in our school district.  On Friday, I had my first job, teaching second grade.  It was fun and exhausting.  The kids were super sweet though and showered me with gifts they made me throughout the day.  Here is a pic of most of my gifts (I forgot I had one tied to my lanyard).  Next week, so far, I am scheduled at the middle school.  I am not anticipating as many gifts from them.

Merrick Turn's 14

This was another big week in our house.  On Tuesday, Merrick turned 14.  As birthdays go, his was a little bit of a bummer.  We tried to celebrate on Monday (Labor Day) with a trip to Frog Lake near Mt. Hood to paddleboard.  Unfortunately, the weather was cold here that day, which means it was freezing up at the mountain.  It was about 45 degree and windy and sprinkled off and on. We lasted less than an hour and Merrick and Colvin (our nephew) were the only ones who actually made it onto the water.

Merrick's actual birthday, Tuesday, was a school day.  It also happened to be the day we were scheduled to go back for a follow up with the cardiologist.  Given that the appointment was right in the middle of the day and his birthday was going to be a bit of a downer, I did at least let him skip school.  We started the day bright and early with cinnamon rolls before the girls went to school, hung out at the house in the morning, went to his doctor's appointment (more on that in a minute), and then to lunch.  After lunch, we had some time in the afternoon.  I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate his birthday.  I shouldn't have been surprised by the answer, he talks about it constantly, but he said he wanted to practice driving.  He and I went out for a secret driving lesson in our abandoned church parking lot.  He was a little big jerky at times, but all in all he is not a terrible driver.  He will get there.  That evening we had dinner and then the family came over for birthday dessert.  Since my nephew, Lincoln's, birthday was the next day, we celebrated both of them.  There is a 3 year and huge height gap between the two of them.

Poor Merrick also didn't get too much in the way of presents on his actual birthday, but don't feel too sorry for him.  Grandpa and Lollie got him new shoes when they were in town, he got a new phone that came the next day, and a completely custom baseball glove that will make it to him eventually. He also got gift cards, candy, and phone accessories from Nana and Papa, the Browns, and Ioapo's.  I would say he did alright in the present department.

While, it might not have been the birthday he dreamed of, any day celebrating Merrick is a good day.  He is kind of the best and we are so happy to have him in our family.

*Doc update before I go: We got the results of the heart rate monitor.  We knew that if he was having greater than 20% PVCs in everyday life, we would need to intervene to prevent long term heart damage.  The monitor showed, over the two weeks he wore it, about a 9% PVC burden rate.  That means that we don't have to intervene to prevent heart damage.  The doctor is concerned though that it is effecting him as he is really feeling the PVCs and so we can chose to treat to reduce symptoms.  Our options are medication (beta or calcium blockers) or an ablation.  Additionally, we could chose to do nothing and he could just live with the symptoms.  We are weighing our options right now, and have differing opinions in our household about what is best.  In the meantime, the doctor has ordered a stress test, since we just did a poor man's stress test in the hospital.  We are pretty confident that we know what that will show, but just want the whole, clear picture.  He starts basketball this week and we are all a little worried about that.  Prayers that it will go well.

First Day of School 2023

 This was a BIG week for our family, the end of an era you might say.  This week the kids went back to school and, for the first time ever, all my babies went to fulltime school.  Merrick started his last year of middle school, Carrigan started her last year of elementary school, and Elsie started Kindergarten.  How did we get here?

Merrick has had mixed things to say about the return of school, but the girls have both really liked it.  Elsie in particular is loving kindergarten.  I was worried that she might have some separation anxiety with being away from me for the first time but she has done great.  The first day, we walked her in and got her settled.  I could tell she was a little nervous, but there were no tears when we left (I saved mine for the car ride home).  The second day, she stayed home because they do a soft start with only half the class attending for the first two days, but on day three she was all smiles about going and hasn't looked back.

Speaking of her day home with me, she had the whole day planned.  We played and painted each other's nails in the morning. Then we went for her favorite lunch (Wendy's) and then went to the library.  It was a great bonus day for the two of us.

Oh, one last thing about Elsie's first week of school, she came home on Friday with the most adorable family portrait she had drawn.  She put so much thought into it, picking each person's clothes and making us all just the right height. One of my friends pointed out that she might have drawn me yelling, but Elsie assures me that it is just my big smile.

Yesterday, we capped off the week with some other big changes.  We decided that it was finally time for Merrick (at 6'5") to graduate from a twin bed.  He got a new queen bed, the girls got his bunk bed, and the girls' daybed found a new home in the playroom.  All the kids are loving the new arrangements.  Merrick declared it the best night's sleep he has every gotten.