My favorite thing about the start of a new school year is the fact that it is a new beginning – new teachers, new activities, even new clothes!!!
This is a big year – the last year I will have a middles school student!! Since Hunter is in 8th grade, next year both boys will be at the high school!!!
Hunter started school on Wednesday –
1st day of 8th gradeNot sure why he looks like he is in pain – clown!!a quick arm wrestling match before leaving for school!
Jordan had an extra day off because just the freshman go on the first day!!! But, Wednesday evening was band exhibition – the culmination of all the hard work put in at band camp!
Jordan waitinga little demo
Thursday was Jordan’s first day of school – 10th grade!!!
ready to goclearly he wasn’t going to smile!!!
Both boys had a great start to the school year and I know it is going to be a super year for them!!!
Hard to believe that it is a new school year already – summer flew by!!! I can’t wait to see what all this new year has in store for my boys!!!
Knowing that everyone is so busy I think it becomes that much more important to respect the time of everyone around us.I feel like I spend hours of my life waiting on people.
A couple weeks ago I reached my limit on people wasting my time.
The Thursday night before our garage sale started (after spending the entire day getting ready for the sale), Jordan & I had a list of errands to get through while Hunter was at cello group. We were quick and got everything done AND picked up Chipotle for dinner before we went back to get Hunter.
So, group is supposed to end at 6:30 and we were waiting several minutes before that.
At 6:35 we were waiting.
6:40 – still waiting
6:45 – getting impatient
6:50 – cranky
I finally decided to walk into the building and get Hunter. About the time I got inside kids started walking out. I still went in and told Hunter that we needed to go since he was standing near his teacher and some o f the other kids.
Seriously – the group is scheduled for 1 hour and she kept them for almost an hour and a half!!!
If practice is going to last that much over the time, I think that the parents should be notified ahead of time – our time is valuable!!!
I get that sometimes things run a little late! But when it is almost half an hour it is not OK!!! (And, for the record, this is the same teacher that is raising prices for cello lessons!!!)
Does it irritate you when other people don’t seem to care that your time is valuable?
This is the last year that I will have a middle school student – next year both boys will be at the high school. Also CRAZY!!!
Last year I was the co-president of the middle school PTO. This year I’m just doing Teacher Appreciation stuff. Part of that involves doing a welcome back gift for the teachers. Because our school is pretty big, we just do something for the certified teachers for this event. (The rest of the staff will be included throughout the year.)
Creativity is NOT my strong suit!!!
But, I didn’t want to just put a gift card into each of the teacher’s boxes.
First, I had to decide what type of gift card to get. Last year I did Starbucks gift cards and didn’t want to do the exact same thing. I finally decided that Sonic would be a good choice – there is something for everyone at Sonic, right?!
This is what I came up with! Not fancy but when it comes down to it I know that they will just take the gift card off and pitch the rest.
And, I had 80 of these to make so it took hours!!!!
After completing 44 reps on the right side I had to switch sides!
left side
Long run day – 11 miles in 86:46 followed by 0.9 easy miles.
Wednesday 8/6 – 44 deadlift with row (15 pound DBs).
readyhinge downrow
After the row, stand back up to complete a rep! Deadlifts are one of my favorite moves!!!
I only had a short amount of time to workout so I just lifted weights – Chalean Extreme Lean Circuit 2.
Thursday 8/7 – 44 squat with front raise (hands together on 1 DB – 12 pounds).
readysquat and lift arms in front
And, this was another long run day – 12 miles in 90:02 + 2.4 easy miles.
Friday 8/8 – 44 alternate side lunge with overhead triceps extension. (8 pound DB)
startlunge right arms downback to startleft lunge
Because I wanted to do 44 lunges to each side, I ended up doing 88 tricep moves!! My triceps are still sore today!!! Plus, keeping my arms overhead the entire time was a big challenge.
I only did Chalean Extreme Lean Circuit 3 – it was a struggle for some reason!!!
readycurl right with left kneeLeft curl with right knee
I counted a right curl and left curl as 1 rep. This was a great move for really working my core – love balance challenges.
Overall this was a good week of workouts. I didn’t travel to Illinois (obviously!!!) to run the ultra but still got in some good runs and strength workouts.
Lately I’ve been struggling with several things and trying to figure out the best solution. I keep telling myself that if it causes stress I need to just let it go but that is easier said than done!!!
Hunter playing his cello
You probably already know that Hunter plays cello. He plays at school but he also takes private lessons and that has been a great experience.
However, his teacher just let all of her students know that she is increasing her rate by $5/half hour. Since she is already higher than most of the private music teachers in town we are having a hard time going along with the rate increase. (We drive to her and buy our own music.)
Hunter loves her as a teacher and has learned a lot but we are trying to decide what is too much!!!
Ultra Running
You might remember that I have tried (twice) and failed (twice) to complete a 50 mile race. Well, this weekend I’m actually supposed to go to Illinois and meet up with a blog friend (Carmen) to run an ultra on Saturday.
The problem is that we have day events, night events and a weekend wedding at the venue and I have been stressed for weeks trying to figure out how to get everything done (cleaning, set-up, ironing…) and still drive to IL without arriving at midnight or later Friday night.
Blogging
And, the thing that I’m really trying to figure out the most is my blog. I hired someone to help me make the switch to self-hosted but ever since he switched it from Go Daddy to whatever it is now, I have had nothing but trouble!!! I spent most of last week avoiding my blog because it was causing me so much stress!!!
I told Chris the other day that as much as I love blogging I know it takes up a lot of time that I could (and probably should) spend on the venue and some other things I’ve committed to lately.
Being the super smart man that he is, he told me to just keep going with my blog – he knows that if I gave it up I would regret it in a very short time!!!
Cello lessons, ultra races (in a different state), blogging…..time to really figure out what is most important!!!
Do you go back and forth between what you WANT to do and what you know you SHOULD do?
