pre-k for soph

Sophie started PreK this week. Tuesday, Ben went with her for half a day. He is convinced that being a PreK teacher would drive a soul to drink. 

Wednesday was her first full day. She had a few tears yesterday (per her self report and a note from the teacher) although we dropped her off without incident. Today she said, "I cried all day." I asked her if she cried during lunch, station time, circle time, on the playground - she answered yes to all. There was no note in her backpack. But, needless to say, I'll be calling her teacher tomorrow. I don't like this not seeing-the-teacher-when-I-pick-her-up thing.

Either way, I rally like her teacher. She's a no-nonsense kind of woman. And I love finally having them at the same school. And I'm really glad I go to school after I drop her off at school. Because I think I would be a little lost if I came home without her.

back to work i go

This summer, my blogging skills have gone down the toilet. So has my picture taking prowess. Mostly b/c each day is crammed jammed full of sometimes a little too much. I'm tired at the end of the day. And my camera stays in my purse most of the day. I'm patiently awaiting the newest iphone arrival so I can get an iphone 4 for dirt cheap. I want to  have a better camera on my phone. Word on the street is that will be sometime this fall. Here's hoping.

Anyways, I started back to real live work 3 weeks ago. At the end of this week, I'll be the office administrator at South Ridge Church. I've been training with Marcia the last 3 weeks. She's retiring after 6 years on the job (I'm only the 2nd person to ever do this job at SRC) on August 31st and I have some big shoes to fill. We've been working together to get me up to snuff on the job.

I did this same job at River Ridge Church for 3(ish) years in Charleston before becoming Family Ministry Director. We were in similar stages of building a building, moving and all that fun stuff. I've come full circle in this. Having the background knowledge is super helpful. It's just a matter of dredging it up from the recesses of my brain and getting things going.

I'll be working 4 days a week mostly during school hours. I drop the kids at school (well, Sophie starts tomorrow), drive to Fairmont, work, work, work, drive back to Morgantown and pick the kids up from school. I have some "outside the office hours" on Fridays which will allow me to be home with Sophie on her day off. So far, the drive is super easy and I actually enjoy it. Especially since it's mostly interstate. Sometimes driving across Morgantown takes longer and is certainly much more maddening. I'm thankful that we live about 3 minutes from the interstate and I can zip right on.

The past couple of weeks have just been hard b/c Ted is in school and Sophie has been at a variety of places. Sometimes it takes me well over an hour to sit in the pick up line at school, go get Sophie and then get home. My sweet friends have graciously taken her a day each and, in the process, saved me about a gazillion dollars. It's been fun for Sophie to get to spend days with her friends - Andrew & Hamilton; Jack, Luke & George; Anna Grace, Nadia & Aaron; Lilly; Aaliyah & Judah. Thank you, Carrie, Lauren, Clare, Lauren & Joanna.

Ben Tuel gets the "husband/dad of the year award." He has dropped Sophie off each morning. He has been home for our teacher home visit last week. He will go with Sophie to school tomorrow for a half day where parents get to attend (he did that with Ted too, so we're just continuing the trend). And this week, is bearing the brunt of being a one car family. (That's another story for another day!)

So, I'm adjusting to life back to work. It really is a change in how we function as a family and how our house runs. It's also very much a provision and I'm thankful for it. I'm just learning what that looks like.

catching up

And now for some total randomness:

This boy right here started 1st grade on Thursday. He's at a new school (again!). I'm thankful that a new, sweet friend of ours is in his class. He says that school is long. He also said that about VBS which was 2.5 hours. Sorry, Pal.  But, so far, no fights and no tears. Thankfully he didn't put up a fuss when I suggested we cut his mohawk before school started.

 

My dad came over a couple of weeks ago. With Ben as his trusty sidekick, they spent 36 hours doing stuff on the house. It was fantastical.

Among other things, I got a new fan in the hot sunroom . . .

 A new pane of glass in the broken garage window . . .

and (drum roll please) a garbage disposal. It's the small things, people!

 Ben had a fight with the toilet and it ended like this. It is currently gorilla grilled and working just fine. Better than duct tape. I thought about taking a picture but I haven't gotten that far.

Ted got to pick out new glasses. He really wanted the ray-bans. But he
he looked a little too much like Squints on The Sandlot. So that was a no go.

I came home from errands the other day and Ted was dressed like this helping Ben do yardwork. I laughed so much. I love his dressing up. He wore something similar to this to walmart the other day with Sophie in a tu-tu. I'm don't want them to get self-conscious ever.

Friday night we had .002% of the WVU student population in our house. That would translate to about 80. We hosted the first Young Life College event of the year and most were freshmen. We had no idea how many to expect but were thrilled (and slightly overwhelmed) with 80. Sunday we hosted leadership. It was quite crowded. But comfortable enough that Millie felt like she could lay belly-up in the middle of worship.

Last weekend I went to Charleston to celebrate this beautiful lady and her upcoming wedding. I went to her shower and a bridesmaids luncheon. Even though I'm not a bridesmaid, I was so thankful to be included. Such a great weekend.

Lunch from Italy - um, unreal!

The Bride: Adrienne

Other tidbits of information:

* Sophie starts school next week. We met her teacher tonight. She is so excited and ready.

* I started a new job 2 weeks ago. I'm not totally thrilled going back to work, but if I'm going to, it's the place for me. (More on this later.)

* I have been meaning to mention this for about 2 months but Ted's hair has finally grown in. This summer, just like the dermatologist said, it's back! I can tell a little where it's still thin. But to the average eye, you'd never know. So thankful for that!

* I am STRUGGLING to get the kids back on a schedule. After several months of late night bedtimes, this has not been easy. And they are C.R.A.N.K.Y. Tonight they were in bed and asleep by 7:50. I didn't know what to do with myself.

* Confession: I'm currently on my 4th season of Sister Wives. I honestly don't do reality tv ever. I'm just fascinated and intrigued and sometimes when I start things like this, I can't stop. The downfall of Netflix. This summer I've watched Sister Wives, the Olympics and The Today Show. That's about it.

* And I'm going to go to bed before midnight. Because it's back to the 5:45 alarm. It's quite amazing how my internal clock has gone right back. So has Ted's 6:15 internal alarm . . .

summer 2012 in the books

After tomorrow, summer is officially over. After our trip to Rockbridge, the kids had a last hurrah in New Martinsville with the grandparents while Ben and I stayed in Morgantown. I started my new job which is going well. We had 4 evenings to ourselves. It was awesome! We went bike riding, out to eat, cleaned out the van after a summer of goldfish and chicken nuggets, went grocery shopping at Walmart together and watched the Olympics late into each night. It was such a treat to walk out the door in 30 seconds flat at the spur of the moment.

It was a great end to a wonderful summer. I feel like things really came together after our week at Rockbridge. Summer felt complete. We spent a week with Ben's family. A week with my Dad's family. Two weekend's with my Mom's family. And a week with our Young Life family. We had some adventures on the side as our own little family. We made lots of memories this summer. I'm so thankful for all that we did this summer. It was so very, very fun! As hard as it was at times, it was all worth it.

Yesterday, we had new student orientation for Ted (which left a lot to be desired). Tonight we had meet-the-teacher night and came home with hundreds of forms to fill out. He has a family friend in the class which is helping make the transition a little easier for him. I'm excited for him for 1st grade.

Sometimes you have such different expectations for things than what it actually turns out to be. And, as always, I've learned to go with the flow. The Lord is so sweet in the things He sets before us and I feel like I've seen so much of that this summer. As sad as I am to see it end, I'm ready for the 2012-2013 school year and what it holds in store for all of us.

On a completely unrelated note, here's one last zipline video. Sophie was mute while she waited to go down. Which, as we all know, is a serious undertaking for her. Our friends Heath and Janelle took the kids to the top and Ben and I were at the bottom.

And just b/c it's cool to see the top video connect with the bottom video.

rockbridge 2012

We spent last week at Rockbridge for a week of Capernaum Camp. Capernaum is Young Life's ministry to kids with special needs. We've been on assignment for this camp two times before. It's never affected me as much as it did this week. I was absolutely undone by these kids.

Ben was asked to lead worship and teach the campaigner kids, buddies and work crew every night as our "assignment" this summer. He also helped do a little program for the evening events. It was perfect for him and he did such a great job. It was so good to be at camp with people that we love so much - the Bergs, Johnstons, Sizicks, Wards, Wilsons, Lutows. Honestly, we've spent more concentrated time with these friends than anyone else in our lives over the last 12 years. So fun. So refreshing. So good for my soul. Assignments should be a week long. That would be perfect.

ted in heaven with his heroes

the kids with Hurricane Pain & Milosh.
kirk & jb have hit official "super star" status with our kids

milosh jr.

daniel, jb, ben, david, zach & kirk
old and new program teams & program techs
4 of the 6 have new martinsville ties

sophie getting her hair "did" by her dad

you can't really see, but sophie hung her shoes on the back of the chairs at meals. classy.

my slice of big cookie. thanks, koila.

the aqua slide thanks to the property committee.
thanks ben tuel & john bagen

the ever elusive try to get the kids as they come down the slide.
we did lots of sliding. very, very fun!

lots of scooter riding. sophie rode the wheels off of david berg's little bike.
alas, no pictures.

tie dye!

scott berg giving the play-by-play of ted's outfit.
skater shoes. flat billed hat. bandanna. tie dye shirt. athletic shorts. cutoff shirt

something i've never seen - ben sitting with the kids in club

perched on top admiring the view

he did lots of jumping off the aqua slide.

susie and i did some aqua sliding. i have the uncanny ability to come
a complete stop upon contact. running across is much more fun.

we participated in the hoe down as a family.

golf cart tour with brooke.

sophie & bethany

it was always a goal for Ted to sit by kirk or jb (or one of their characters). he
figured out that if he sat by sarah or bethany, that was an automatic ticket
to sitting by one of them.

ted wore his hoe down shirt for several days after

and he slept in it. the day after the hoe down he said, "dad, i wish i
i could be a hillbilly everyday." like father, like son. ben is so proud.

heath did some kid-chucking at the pool

last night watching movies together

watching ben & scott's old program video. technology has
come a long, long way

This week wrapped up our summer perfectly.

look who did the zipline today

After being very adamant for quite some time that she would not doing the zipline, Sophie marched herself up 139 stairs and jumped right off. She went with up Heath & Janelle and their kids to the top and came down beside Ted. I was waiting at the bottom. She is dead set on going again tomorrow!