the last month

It’s been a long time since I blogged. I guess I fell off the wagon there for a while. The month of August just kinda flew by. We had a good time when we went camping. The weather was good but we had a rain shower or two – which I am actually really happy about since we rented a pop-up trailer and the rain made it that much more worthwhile and appreciated. Here are a few pictures.

Kenzie and Soph in front of the pop-up


Breakfast


Inside watching a movie on a rainy afternoon


Playing with lego and eating pop-corn inside


Looking for frogs


Seb. Kenzie, Rachel, Eryn and Jenna practicing the splits


The gang on the beach


Some of the kids


CJ the scrabble shark


Guitar playing


Pretty girls


Snuggles after a long day


By the way – a pop-up is totally the way to go when camping. I think both CJ and I are in agreement that if we can afford one next year we’d like to get one.

CJ had a very healthy August. He stopped drinking, has really gotten into mountain biking, is running again and is all about eating healthy. I just need some of that to rub off on me now.

One Saturday a couple weeks ago Kenzie and I went shopping together. We ended up at Michaels. I had a $200 gift certificate to spend. I bought myself some scrapbooking paper and then Kenzie and I went crazy picking up all kinds of craft supplies for the remaining $$. Kenzie LOVES crafts and she is so artistic. So she and her friends have been having a ton of fun doing lots of neat craft stuff lately.

While Kenzie loves doing crafts, Seb is into building things. He is quite good at it too. He totally knows how to follow directions on these toys where you build a car or truck or airplane etc. I picked up a new game/kit for him the other day and he has been spending a lot of time making stuff with all the pieces. Very cool.

The worst part of August was that both cats died (within the last week). Well, to be honest, we had to put Miranda down. She has been peeing in our house now for over a year. We have put up with it for so long because I just couldn’t bring myself to have her put down. But then she started pooing randomly in different parts of the house – under a bed, in theh middle of the floor. It just couldn’t go on. We had her tested a few months ago for bladder infection/UTI, etc. and it wasn’t that. We tried the kitty prozac (clomicalm) for a while but that only worked for a couple weeks and Miranda was completely out of it when she took it. In any case, I took her in and it was very humane and she didn’t suffer so that is a small blessing (she was 17).



Then there was Miro. She hasn’t been looking very well for a couple weeks. The last couple days she basically stayed under our bed. I gave her water thinking that maybe she was missing Miranda. But then on Saturday night she was dry heaving and yesterday morning she looked terrible (kind of limp and like she was drooling). CJ brought her to the emergency clinic and the doctor examined her and found a lump. While CJ was on the phone with me and we were talking about what to do (it was going to cost between $1000 and $1500 to have her stay over night and have tests done), the vet came to get him and told him that she was in the process of dying and won’t make it through the day. Apparently, the vet gave her some anesthetic to “move the process on faster” and CJ was with her when she died. I totally wasn’t expecting that or ready for it.

I was awake a lot last night – couldn’t sleep. I was pretty upset about the cats. Mostly, I was wondering if Miro had been in pain or uncomfortable for a long time and I just didn’t notice. I hope that wasn’t the case. The kids took it well – I think Kenzie was more upset when Miranda “died” than when we told her about Miro – which is surprising cause Miro and Kenzie were close. Miro slept on her bed/pillow with here every night from the time we moved here. In any case…. It’ll get easier (I hope).

Today was the kids’ first day of school.


They were both very nervous yesterday and this morning but everything went well in the morning. This year we didn’t find out who their teachers were until this morning. (In the previous years we found out about a week before the start of school). Seb knows a bunch of kids in his class – including his “girlfriend” and two little boys from our street who he loves playing with. He’s been put in a class with a new kindergarten teacher. She taught Sophie a couple years ago and Helen says that she is AMAZING!. So that makes me happy.

Kenzie knows a few (maybe 3 or 4) kids in her class – although she’s in a different class than her best friend, Zoe. They put her in a 2/3 split though which has me a bit nervous. She is still supposed to get the grade 2 curriculum, but being in a split class where most of the kids are in grade 3 seems like it might be challenging for her. A) She will be up to two years younger than some of the kids in her class (she’s only 6 now and will be in class with some kids who turned 8 at the beginning of this year), and B) she already is very hesitant and insecure when it comes to her reading. The good thing is that she knows her new teacher (she was the choir director last year) and Kenzie seems to adore her. Sue said that she’s a great teacher – very calm and organized – which is exactly the kind of teacher that Kenzie needs. So we will see how it goes. I am anxious to pick the kiddo up this afternoon to see how their days went. I might even leave the office early and pick them up when school ends (no YMCA) so they can tell me all about it.