Too Much Stuff!

"School has too much stuff!" says Miss Sarah! Here she is getting ready to go to school today with her trapper keeper, bag of books, purse and new lunch box.

She's never cared for school lunch that much and says this year lunch is extra yucky. So, we went out two days ago and she spent quite a bit of time selecting just the right lunch box and thermos. We actually had to go to two stores before she found one she liked. Yep, the lunch box is pink (it's turned around in the photo so only the black back side shows) and the thermos has Hello Kitty on it. She's taking cajun soup, puffy Cheetos, mixed nuts and a Honest Kids juice drink and says this lunch is SO MUCH better than school lunch. It took a bit to find a drink for her to take as she doesn't like sugar. The Honest Kids drink has half the sugar of regular drinks plus it's organic. And she likes it!

First Day of School!

Today is Sarah's first day of 8th grade. On Monday all the parents and 8th grade students arrived for orientation and were greeted by the staff and informed of the rules and regulations for the coming year -- one big new rule is "NO GUM"! Then, we all were ushered into the brand new 7th and 8th grade school building. Everything is so new and bright! Well, actually there are still lots of things 'in the works' and being finished up (like the gym which won't be done for 3 weeks, etc) but they went ahead and started school today so the 7th and 8th grade students would be on the same schedule as all the other grades. The new junior high school is connected to the high school so the transition next year to 9th grade shouldn't be as hard for her.

Sarah is taking social studies, science, keyboarding (typing), advanced piano, PE and pre-algebra right along with all the other kids and then she has a one-on-one class for English. During orientation night we found out about a new kind of art club they'll be having after school and Sarah is interested in trying that as well.

She is excited to have a new BIG locker. In 7th grade the lockers were stacked with one small locker on top of another student's small locker. Upper lockers could only be opened after odd numbered classes and lower lockers after even numbered classes to keep from kids being piled on top each other. But with the new tall lockers, that's all solved. She was excited to go yesterday to pick up some locker goodies like a mirror and has plans to print off some Jay Chow photos to stick up inside -- yep, she's a teenager!

Vacation

We've been away on vacation for quite a bit, but are back home now. And it's just a few days before school starts for both Kevin and Sarah. Yesterday we took one last summer fishing trip.

Here are a few photos from the our visiting in Iowa -- I'm starting to think our camera may be on its last legs as most of our photos didn't turn out. But, we had a great time! Thanks everyone!!!