Junior High?!!

Thank heaven I experienced all my anxiety about Landon going to Junior High back in March when I first received mail from the school regarding class selection, immunizations and an open house. Landon had been giving us some attitude at that time, and I was feeling seriously panicked about this next stage of his life (and ours as parents).

Fortunately, we went to the open house at the Junior High which put my fears to rest and made me excited instead of worried for him. Also instrumental in putting my mind to rest, was the life-changing service project that turned Landon from a lippy pre-teen to a super sweet, service-oriented, almost too good to be true sort of boy. Phew!


So when Monday morning rolled around and we had to go to the Junior High to pay $51 in class fees (#$@!), I was cool as a cucumber (they are notoriously cool).


Then again that evening when we went to the Junior High for back-to-school night I felt totally calm. We familiarized ourselves with the map, found all his classes, tried out his locker (at least 4 times for good measure) and felt the energy of this new adventure.


It's amazing how quickly my locker-opening skills came back to me, even though it has been 20 years since I've had to use one, I was able to walk him through it like not a day had passed.


The classrooms were all in order and Landon was very happy to see the BYU football poster on the wall of his history class.


So Tuesday morning was his big first day and he was READY! He had woken up on his own at 6:00am, showered, eaten breakfast and was all but out the door when I got up at 7:15.


We had plenty of time for some early morning photos, including this one of his very faded name on his backpack which he has had since kindergarten!


It seems just like yesterday that Randy and I excitedly got him ready for his first day of kindergarten.

I'm going to O.D. on nostalgia!

The backpack was laughably ginormous on him then, so seeing it on him now really hit me with how much he has changed (cue tears).

Obviously he was excited!

I love it that he knew I'd still be taking pictures as he walked away.


I ended up driving over to stake out the bus situation. This is the first time he has ever had to ride a bus to school, so that seemed noteworthy. Not a bad view eh?


I made our traditional first-day-of-school chocolate chip cookies for him and Whitney made this cute sign with acorn paper weights.

He had a great day and came home feeling like he knew where everything was already (it's a BIG school).

**Do you remember your first day of 7th grade?
Do your kids ride a bus?
Do you have a tendency to O.D. on nostalgia?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Writing this post and being able to reference two of my previous posts made me feel overwhelmed with happiness for the beauty of blogging. All of these things would have been forgotten if I hadn't written them down, and since I'm not a dedicated journal-writer when it comes to traditional journals, it is amazing how blogging has made me a dedicated documenter and I love that!

Remember My Name, Remember, Remember

Last Saturday afternoon I met up with my mom and sisters at Thanksgiving Point for lunch and a movie. They ordered lunch while I was over buying the movie tickets, but when I joined them my lunch wasn't ready yet (it was aBBQ beef sandwich). I ended up eating all of my chips while I waited, and they were done eating by the time my sandwich arrived...what the?


Adam dropped Amy off at the theater on his way over to our house, so she wasn't able to join us for lunch but made it in time for the movie.


We were all excited to see "Fame", especially since Kherington from So You Think You Can Dance is in it. We had medium-high expectations going in, but ended up being really disappointed.


It felt like the season premiere of a new TV series or something, like they couldn't jam everything into it that they wanted to but that they had lots of story lines to develop. It felt like a lot of random scenes spliced together with no flow. We probably wouldn't have minded so much if there had been more dancing, but there was disappointingly little.


I grew up listening to the original "Fame" movie soundtrack and know every word of every song. I also loved the TV series that was on in the early 80s and used to watch it on my parents' bed while practicing my splits (which I never was very good at). I had the albums from the TV show too and practically wore them out; it's kind of sad that I have no idea where they are now. Good times.

**Have you seen this movie?
Did you watch the TV show as a kid?
Could/can you do the splits?
Did you have albums?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Is anyone else having a hard time with the weird in-between, seasonal temperature swings going on right now? I love how cool it is at night and in the morning, but then get overheated in the day.

Grand Rapids or Bust

The kids and I are picking up our rental car (cross your fingers for a hot pink or teal Corsica) then driving 3 hours to Michigan to spend 6 days with Betsy and her family. I had a dreamy trip there last fall (hence the fall photo of her house) and am really hoping the heat and humidity of a June trip doesn't kill me.


I'm also hoping that having my kids there doesn't prove too complicated. It was great to be so footloose and fancy free last fall. But it will be nice for the kids to get to know Betsy (Whitney's middle name is Elizabeth because of Betsy), Greg, Owen and Emmit and to get to see Betsy's mom Faye and brothers Tim and Dave again.


Tim and Dave both visited us in Utah (though separately) back in 2005 so the kids have great affection for them.


Looking at these pictures from 2005 hurts my heart and reminds me how long it's been since the kids have seen Tim and Dave. Wow.


But then again, they haven't seen Betsy since the summer of 2004! (We took her to Seven Peaks with us, she was wild and crazy.)

FYI--I won't have Internet access while in Michigan, but have a few posts written that will pop up while I'm out of commission.

**Why are rental cars often such heinous colors?**