Summer Time Fun

It has been a long time since I last wrote anything down.  This will be a long post, but I will do a quick update for each person.  April was filled with testing and more testing for our students and children.  May was filled with last minute worries if we had jobs or not.  But I think we were able to finish out the school year without too many bumps.  Out lovely Arizona legislature has made it hard on teachers.  They have taken away our protections for being tenured and made it easier to get rid of us if principals or districts want too. I know that there is still lawsuits pending, so we will see how things progress.

Richard and I both did get our contracts renewed!  We are still employed!  Richard still teaches high school chemistry and physics.  I am still teaching first graders. Our children have all grown a few more inches and have become smarter.

Christopher is now in "Junior High".  It is a scary thought that I have a seventh grader. He will be attending the same school.  Our school goes up to eighth grade.  He is still into military things and reading.  He reads a lot!  He usually reads two or three books a week.  He has read several stories multiple times, because he likes them so much.  He will be 12 in just a couple of weeks.  He will become a Deacon.  He will be able to pass the Sacrament in church.  I also can't believe that I will have a Deacon.  He is growing so fast.

Morgan is now in fifth grade.  He is also attending the same school.  He is into military stuff just like Christopher is, but also Star Wars.  He has discovered that you can use markers to personalize the Lego Star Wars guys.  He has had a lot of fun doing that this summer. He is very creative about it.  He has also created a whole new bunch of "Pikmin" characters.  He has drawn their seeds, buds, flowers, and the onions; the place where they are stored when not being used in the game. Pikmin is a Game Cube/Wii game.  He recently turned 10 years old.

Jonathan is a now a big first grader.  He is so happy that he is now at my school.  He is excited that he is reading almost a second grade level.  He is reading and sounding out some pretty big words.  He wants to pass off memorizing the all thirteen Articles of Faith.  Richard had him try to read them first. He was sounding out the words with little to no help from us.  He is excited, because he figured out that in 17 months he will be 8 years old and able to baptized.

Nathan is enthusiastic about life in general.  His big thing right now is anything that deals with Jesus.  He likes watching the movies, hearing the music, and looking at the pictures.  We bought one of the Living Scriptures movies for him.  We have the one where Jesus is baptized.  There are days the I have to say that I can't find it, because I am tired of watching it.  Some days that is all he wants to watch.  He is ready for school to begin.  He wants to go to "his" school, just like his brothers.

Anne-Marie is loving life and getting bigger and smarter as well.  She can be very "cheeky" and "sassy" at times, but she is very sweet.  She is usually very protective of her little sister and big brothers.  She is also into anything Jesus as well.  She loves to hear and "read" stories as well.  She has discovered that pink is "her" color, as well as that she is the ONLY princess.  If you ask her if Cinderella, Snow White, Bell, Ariel, or Sleeping Beauty are princesses, she'll tell you no.  She is a princess.

Kendal is growing like a weed as well.  She is about a head's distance shorter than her sister.  She is getting more and more verbal.  She loves stories and books, along with anything that is not edible - just to put it into her mouth. She loves to bother her sister and brothers.  She loves life as well.