Fancy Lunch? Yes, please! (The Backlog!)

School lunches aren't free this year. We got spoiled. They were free last year and Shane was virtual the year before that. We did pay for some lunches Shane's 3rd grade year at Scottsville before COVID shut everything down.

So it was a surprise when we got a letter stating Shane's account balance was $ -8.10! We tried to contact the food service department, but they never reached back.

So Carrie said, "Fine! We'll make our own lunches. It'll be cheaper that way, anyway!" She even told Shane said she'd make him a 'bento box' lunch once a week.

I immediately asked if I could get one, too!

Today, was the first day she cooked and it was great: Fried rice with sausage, white rice, and dumplings! I went home still full!

I don't know if Carrie will keep up the weekly meals, but I hope so. It should end up being cheaper than Shane buying lunch at the cafeteria. School lunches cost $3.45 for 2022-23. That's $17.25 for a 5 day week or $621 assuming Shane attends 180 days of school.

Maybe I should get a dashboard cam (The Backlog!)

I normally don't encounter traffic backups near my house. A semi-truck trying to reverse into a driveway slowed things down here, but the half-naked school bus was what prompted me to take a picture!

The back wall was a 2x4!? If I was further forward in line, I would've been curious to ask the driver what the story was behind their ride!

Dog Sitter (The Backlog!)

Kila continues to grow! She's making it through the night without issue (though she does like an early start to the day).

Her personality has been high energy. She loves to run and be outside!

She doesn't love stairs. Going down freaks her out (along with many other things). Instead of continuing to carry her down, I've been placing her on the bottom step. That's less scary and she hops off without issue, but the second step? Oh my. 

We're getting there.

Kila's not afraid of going up, at all! She'll happily jump to the back of the couch like she thinks she's one of our cats!

I'm trying to push along Kila's ability to go down stairs for when Carrie's out of town. 

That's right, Carrie's ditching us for a week. She's going on a "work" cruise with Grandma to Bermuda.

We don't think Kila is old enough to go the whole day without a break yet, so Carrie reached out to a pet sitter, Kayla. Then she invited the Kayla over to meet Kila.

When Shane realized everyone was outside, he wanted to join the party! He got the dogs running and put on a show.

Talking about your pets to someone scratches a similar itch as talking about your children. 

Side note: In December, Kila is still jumping on Loki's back. Only now he's figured out she's a girl and would love for the positions to be reversed....., but they can't seem to figure it out! Whew!

We're fortunate that our pets get along. Hopkins hates Bunsen, but otherwise anyone can mix with anyone. Max isn't afraid to bull her way between the dogs to get attention.

And she's okay with dog attention so long as the scratches keep coming! You can see that Kila is now bigger than her.

The dogs are happy to sniff and offer their butt cleaning services to any cats on ground level!

Kila's been a welcome addition to the family. She annoys Loki at times, but his perspective on things will change when she's older!

Oh, Irony (The Backlog!)

I make a point of checking all of Carrie's pants pockets before I put them in the wash. 

Normally, I spot check, but once the truck key got past me and was washed. We were very confused when the car alarm started randomly going off! 

Carrie was mad at me. I was annoyed she was mad when she left the key in the pants for days. 

Thankfully, the key dried out and worked fine. We forgave each other, but I mentally labeled Carrie as "bad about leaving stuff in pockets." 

I was pondering this while doing laundry. "Fool me once! Oh, no, no, no!" I checked all her pockets, but I should've been paying more attention to my own. Sure, my wallet, keys, and phone were all secured. I was right I wouldn't make that mistake. No, I was about to make a new one. 

I pocket dry erase markers throughout the school day. I can use them to draw on desks or computer screens when kids ask me questions. Sometimes I'll notice them in my pockets as I drive home. Those get dropped in the cup holder for me to take back in the next day.

But what if a marker made it into the wash in my pants while I was busy checking my wife's pants for her mistakes?

Humble pie.

It's not a fun flavor, but a necessary one. The longer you remember the taste, the longer you can go without another slice.

With the power of future sight, I have another example where I get serving. 

Engineers love checklists, because they help eliminate oops'. I repositioned the flatbed trailer, but made an oops. Do you see the line in the gravel?

I hooked the flatbed up, but I forget to raise the stand. I left a nice little furrow I had to try and fix!

Lesson learned....and if not, there will be another slice of humble pie with my name on it!

The First Weekend of the School Year (The Backlog!)

School started, but that doesn't mean anything else stopped! I had to prep the pole barn for a hay delivery.

Carrie's eyes were glued to the weather report. There was rain on the horizon and she was praying the hay would arrive dry and get put away dry.

I could see the storm clouds rolling in.

I watched from a distance while I walked Kila and Loki. The hay people were using a tractor and had brought their dog, so it was better to keep the pups at a safe distance (mostly so Kila wouldn't freak out and run away!).

There had been some sort of 'sale,' so Carrie jumped to order early for winter.

Carrie plans to do a lot more riding with Oak Ridge Hunt club this year.

Jess and Indy said they'd be happy to join up whenever she trailers out!

Carrie hopes to get Eowyn back into shape.

It's not 100% yet, but Carrie is leaning towards selling Eowyn. Eowyn is eager to ride off property, but she's resistant to doing much on property. Is it because of Kitsune? Is it because she's being a brat? We don't know. But if she's opposed to being ridden here, it could be time for her to move on.

Carrie did more than trailer horses this weekend. She also drove the mower to Richmond.

After the sprayer pump died, she picked up a replacement. I installed it, but it didn't work either. I thought there could be a bad wire somewhere. The retailer said they'd replace the new unit if it was faulty, but we needed to return in. Carrie, the overachiever, brought the whole setup, so it could be tested on the spot!

It was a bad wire. The wire that connected the pump to the sprayer was dead. The retailer swapped it out for no cost and we were ready to spray.....not that we ever did. Carrie wanted to do it herself, but months later I can say it never happened. Whoops.

Shane went along for the ride. They met up with Grandma and Grandpa in Richmond did a Bucket swap (99% sure she was going back home to be with them!).

I forget exactly what I did while they were got, but it wasn't blogging. I took a picture of polywire lines from the fields, so it's possible I went out and took down more of the bottom lines that were grounding out.

Carrie got Shane back in time for a youth group event at church. I *think* it was themed "Anything but a bowl for ice cream." There was a competition to bring in the weirdest things. I'd brought a couple things for Shane, but there were way more creative things out there. One student brought a cored out watermelon. Another brought something like an old flatscreen TV!

I stayed down the hill while Carrie drove back to the house. I participated on Sunday when the church paid for a snow-cone truck to park out front!

Shane and I waited in line with Ed and Samuel. We met Ed and Samuel years ago at the End Games for Pokemon League Night. Samuel's a 6th grader and new member of the youth group, too! (Though he doesn't show up on Wednesday nights, because of baseball practice unfortunately).

Sunday evening, I took Shane to the end of the year party at Scottsville Pool.

It was packed! 

Shane never really got a pool friend. He was recognized by lots of groups, but never found one of his own. Some of that may be due to his people skills, but I'm hoping the youth group is where he really plugs in anyways.

He was thrilled with all the food. I think eating was the only time he bothered to sit with me and it may be because I made him!

Shane wanted to be wherever the other kids were. He happily inserted himself into the volleyball game. 

I was happy to see that he ended up playing around with another kid after the majority migrated away. It was someone he recognized from school.

"What's his name?" I asked.

Shane shrugged. He didn't know! 

I encouraged Shane to find it out. I also said I'd be happy to set up a time they could hang out if Shane got his contact information. That didn't happen, but Shane did find out the boy's name......the next week! I can't remember it now writing this right before Christmas! 

It was a full weekend. I fell asleep Sunday tired, but feeling successful at living a life worth living.

REALLY!?!? (The Backlog)

When trying to catch up, I filtered posts to look at only drafts. Many times I start things and don't finish them. This post was an outlier in that it was completed! Originally slated to be published October 21, 2021, I found a different post about cats when I investigated the date. I'm not 100% sure why this wasn't posted. It could be that Carrie didn't want to post it as she ended up regretting moving Eddie in with the girls, or it could be that I was moving stuff around and lost it in the shuffle. 

Since I'm so far behind, I decided to post it regardless of why it wasn't before.

We moved Eddy in with the mares to make room for Indy. For the first week, Abby and Eowyn bossed him around, but something started to change. Eddy was in charge the 2nd week, and the 3rd week?

The 3rd week Abby was in heat. I watched her walk up and squirt in front of him.

Eddy is old. He's nearly 24 years old with creaks, cracks, pops, and no balls, but Abby wanted his inner stallion.

Eddy's "inner stallion" sort of knew what to do....sort of. 

Carrie said the horny pair was a huge pain with doing chores. They didn't want to separate to eat and were high-stress in their stalls. Micayla came out to ride Abby, but Abby only wanted a different sort of ride (that she and Eddy were still trying to figure out!).

So Eddy had to go back to dude land.

Eddie was not a happy camper. He ran up and down the fence line and called to Abby constantly. He kept the vigil for days.

Abby calmed down much faster. She called back sometimes and looked longingly across the aisle, but she went out of heat and went back to eating.

Things have calmed down since. It took days. Heidi had said that when Eddy was fielded with mares in the past, "He didn't want to come back inside." That's an understatement compared to what we saw! Eddie wanted to be an alpha, breeding stallion! Mark in the record books that Eddy hanging out with the mares was a failed experiment. 

First Day of School 2022-23 (The Backlog!)

"Both of my barn assistants are going back to school. I'm all alone. Send help. And chocolate." 

- Carrie on Facebook

The first day of school was a misty morning. Kila had me up way earlier than I needed to be. Shane's bus will pick him up an hour later this year. I'll be on my way before he is (a big change from elementary school!). Theoretically, I could drive him in (and probably will sometimes), but we hope he'll make some friends on the bus.

When the sun came up, Carrie had us pose for a picture to mark the occasion.

After that, I left. Carrie waited with Shane at the bus stop and the day was a go!

My day went well. I like my schedule at least 10 times better than last year's, and the year feels far closer to normal. I have kids seated in groups rather than alone. Most masks are down, cell phones are away, and kids talked to each other (even if it took a little prompting!). 

Shane's school day ends near the same time as mine. I was easily able to beat him home, though, thanks to his stop being in the middle of the bus route. 

Carrie and I sat outside with the dogs to greet him.

Kila was terrified of the gate, but Loki charged out to see where his human brother had been!

Kila joined the party when Shane got closer to the house.

Shane said the day went well! He missed recess, but he'd seen Dylan during break/lunch. Middle School is a big change from Elementary School, so hopefully he'll continue to feel that way. There will be a much greater academic demand on him at Walton. We signed him up for the compacted math class. Whereas Shane was able to twiddle his thumbs, stare into space, hum, goof off on the computer, and then snap back to answer whatever math questions were posed to him at Scottsville, the compacted math class will be much more difficult. I'd prefer if the County didn't push kids into Algebra at 7th grade, but Shane's talented at math and there should be an entirely different crowd of kids we hope he'll fit into.

But speaking of groups of kids, Youth Group was Wednesday night, too! Shane and I got some dinner and then I drove him into town. I parked at the bottom of the hill and tried to catch up on my Spanish Bible verses. With my window down, I could clearly hear Shane roaring and yelling from time to time...

It was a busy, but good start to the school year. Hopefully, that trend will continue even when we start hitting the inevitable bumps in the road.

Ready to Start (The Backlog!)

 I finished setting up my classroom at the 11th hour. 

It feels so much better to have groups instead of 26 random desks in rows and columns. 

My "little project" that ended up taking hours turned out well, too. I'll try to make something similar with work from this year (Ideally, during the year, so kids can see their work on the wall!).

A lot of my stuff is older and showing wear and tear from yearly teardowns, but I feel good about how the room ended up. 

There won't be a seating chart to start, because I don't really know any of the students yet. Before COVID, I let students pick their own seats 1st quarter. Then I came up with a chart 2nd quarter to shake things up and force them to talk to new people.

FRIDAY UPDATE:

So how'd the week go? Pretty well! Last year, my classes all ended up LOUD. This year, I have a few where it's been hard to get anyone to talk! So far, it feels like a huge improvement from where we started last year. The new principal has been adamant about patrolling hallways and enforcing a tardy policy and I'm all for it. 

She also asked us to wear our new staff t-shirts for a group photo.

It looks organized at first, but if you look at it longer you'll see there's no consensus on whether we should stand or sit. Hopefully, that won't be a metaphor for the year!