School Begins!

I was not prepared for school to start at all, but that's nothing new, whether we have moved or not. Actually I think having just moved into the rental a few days beforehand made it quite a bit easier to not be sad that my oldest child is starting high school while my youngest was starting elementary school.

Darin was pretty darn excited to get up and go to seminary.  He's always been an early bird so that wasn't much of a surprise.  We have had the biggest blessing with all the crazy changes that have happened in the past two weeks.  We are currently living outside our ward boundaries (but still attending our normal ward since we are building the house).  Anyway, no one in our ward lives around us but after the seminary fireside I ran into Ginger's old preschool teacher Miss Janet who is also the RS president of the Heritage Trails Ward and she gave me a list of people we could call to maybe set up a carpool. 

So with one day before seminary starting I called Shea Makin, we had kind of met her through mutual friends beforehand, to see if we could carpool or do something.  I was pretty desperate because of course Ken had to fly out at 4 am on the First Day of School for a business trip and I had no idea how I was going to have Darin to early morning seminary from 6-7am and get home in time to get the girls ready and at school at 7:30am.  Not only did Shea say we could carpool but basically she will drive Darin and few other kids EVERY-SINGLE- MORNING!  We only ever have to drive if she is out of town.  What a HUGE, HUGE answer to our prayers!

After Darin left at 5:40am, I had about half an hour before I woke up the girls.  They actually did pretty good waking up so early.  I think they were super excited because it's not like we started a school bedtime routine until the night before.

So cute! 

Rose was great big sister and wanted to see Ginger off to her classroom.  I am so proud of Ginger she was a pro and didn't hardly look back.  She's been telling me how she is so scared to start school and have a new teacher.  But, we just told her she is growing up and now she needs to go to school like her siblings.  It's like she has just accepted that and is moving on.  We're so proud of her!

Ginger is in Kindergarten and her teacher's name is Mrs. Duderstadt.  There are only 17 kids in Ginger's class and I get the feeling that her teacher will keep things pretty calm in there so it should be an easy adjustment for Ginger. 

Rose is in second grade.  She's super happy to have her friend from church, Kylie, in her class.  It makes transitioning to a new school quite a bit easier for her.

Her teacher's name is Mrs. Eoff.  She seems super fun and I think her personality will really match Rose's.  We are so excited for her.

I was so worried about how Darin would transition to High School and how the girls would like their new elementary school, but I wasn't worried about Nathan starting 8th grade at the same middle school he had attended for 6th and 7th grade.  It turns out that I should have been more worried about him.  He slept in, didn't have his bag packed, and managed to be 5 minutes late even with me dropping him off by car.  I dropped him off with his bike because he needed to ride home.

I got home just in time from the Middle School to see Darin off for his first day of 9th grade.

Since he had already been up and going for three hours already he had no problem riding his bike to school the first day.

And he's off!  Oh my goodness 4 hours after I began my day all four kids were off to three different schools!  I don't know how I'm going to survive this year, day one was completely exhausting.  No nap for me though.  I met up with some friends for a "tears and cheers" breakfast and then had to go pick out decorative selections for our house.  It was crazy.

It is going to be hard following such an early morning schedule.  To top it off me and Ken made a goal to make Darin a warm breakfast every morning before seminary.  We haven't done this for the previous 9+ years of school but Grandma Tietjen recommended it to us and we feel like it is a way to show our support for the efforts that they make to study the scriptures early in the morning.

Rose and Ginger were so excited to ride the bus from our rental house.  The house we are building backs up to the elementary school but the rental is a few miles away.  It just so happens that the bus stops right on the corner of rental so that makes it super easy for them.  We had a little tragedy the first day of school though.  I was downtown picking out selections for my house, I left in enough time to make it home but on the freeway home I ran out of gas.  It turns out that our fuel pump and gauge were going out.  So I ended up stranded on the freeway.  My friend Kim Didier came and brought me gas so I could make it to the next gas station to fill up.  I tried calling the school and the bus company but I couldn't get ahold of any of them. I had told the girls not to get off the bus unless they saw me because I was worried that they wouldn't recognize where we had been living for only the past 5 days.  So I was envisioning them stuck on some bus.  It turns out that they completely forgot about that and got off at the stop by our rental but when I wasn't home to meet them they went inside the house (the door was unlocked because we don't have a key).  So then they went back outside and cried on our front lawn.  It was so sad.  A neighbor found them and called my number that was printed inside their backpack.  Thankfully I was only 3 minutes away and our new neighbor was so sweet to stay with them.  I was a bawling mess when I got home, not exactly how you want to meet new neighbors but I was so thankful!  Rose and Ginger were a little scared and sad but they weren't even crying anymore by the time I met up with them.  They bounced back super fast when I gave them a treat.

The next morning they were raring to go and excited to ride the bus to school.

So cute seeing all the little kids hop on the bus.  My girls usually take up the first or second seat.

And Nathan made it up and on time so that he could ride to school.

Of course with all the new morning routines and days filled with schooling our kids have been coming home completely exhausted.  I was reading through the girls notes and next thing I know they had crashed on the couch.

Same thing with my Nathan.  Poor guy still doesn't have a bed that is assembled.  How he can just crash on the floor is beyond me.  But school must be pretty tiring.

The first week went pretty well.  It was hard to make the adjustment.  Ginger is so scared to go through the lunch line.  We normally do sack lunches but on Fridays the kids can get ice cream with their hot lunch so they usually beg to have hot lunch that day.  Ginger got up enough courage to at least go through the line for the ice cream, but then she didn't eat it at school and brought it home all melted.  At least she chose the right kind so we put it in the freezer and she ate it later.

Darin is taking ROTC as his PE elective.  They make them wear a full, formal uniform with fatigues and boots one day a week.  They also give him a set of work out clothes that they just have to wear during that period. He's been loving it!