Go Big or Go Home

Making up names for these posts is half the fun...

So, the small fry are growing and want to crow about it. Gib is blase about it now, but he's 5'7" for the record. Mariah, however, is through the roof about breaking the 5' ceiling. She's been marking every 1/16" along the way waiting for it to happen. I would say it was overnight, but just about once a week we measured, so it wasn't very surprising after all.

Taryn took out the gold Volvo. Bummer! But glad to say nobody was injured. It was a rainy day rear end collision and our insurance totalled the car. We've decided not to replace it at this time. The old van needs a repair so it will start every time you, hello, turn the key. We will get that done for the time being since we still have 3 cars for 3 drivers. Next summer will be the thing...4 drivers and a 15 yr old in the wings.

Taryn's other big news is the first two college applications have been sent! Let's hope for big scholarships!! Missouri Science & Tech and University of Alabama in Huntsville were the top 2 on her list. Next up is Southern Utah University, Tennessee Tech, and University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Colorado School of Mines is a possibility as well. BYU was on the list but I think it is off now. For her major (chemical engineering) and style of learning, BYU is just way too big, and can't match the internships and co-ops that the top tech schools she's most interested in offer.

Indie gets to come home this week! Yay! Mike leaves to go get her on Wednesday. It'll be the first time she's been home since she left for Mercer. We've been getting her new room ready for her. It will be sad for her not to have her old bedroom, I'm sure, but I hope that after living with 2 other girls, just having the privacy of a bedroom to yourself in the comfort of your family's home will feel really, really nice! It looks like Indie in there too. We've got her artwork up, her comforter on the bed, guitars in the room. And we put up new curtains under the sheers from her windows. In this room there are 3 windows, facing east, so the 2 sheers didn't quite work if you wanted privacy and, say, wanted to sleep past 6 am. Both of which, I'm sure Indie will want!

My big news is that I am going to be team teaching one of the Pre-K classes. One of our teachers is moving to Minnesota. Next week is her last week. I knew one of our subs really wanted to work for the school, and would be a wonderful teacher, but her daughter is in the 2 day program for another year or two. So I volunteered to teach on Wednesdays if our director wanted to hire her so she could accept the job. She accepted and now we will be teaching together. She has T/Th when her daughter is at our school and I have Wednesdays. Next year we will have the little kiddo, to quote one of our precocious cuties from a few years ago, "skip a grade" so her mom can teach all 3 days. She will be a tiny 3 yr old then in a giant 4 yr old world, but capable of both the work and probably of taking a few of the kids out if need be. I will look out for her too. I love that kid - I've been calling her Cate The Great for some time now. So we've been madly trying to get ready to become teachers. It takes alot of work to step in. The other teacher is taking alot of stuff out of the classroom that needs to be replaced, plus there is just alot that naturally, you want to make your own.

Mike is starting his annual big job of wreath sales for the scout troop. The guy he inherited the job from has a younger son coming into the troop just in time for Mike to pass the job back to him next year! Yay! They are both happy about that.