Progress Report

This week was Carter's parent-teacher conference, so I figured it was about time for a general update on how we're progressing so far this school year.

Carter's parent-teacher conference went well.  As you'll recall, this is the teacher that saved parent-teacher conferences for us five years ago.  After Jacob's Kindergarten one traumatized us, hearing his first grade teacher gush over how much she loved him warmed our hearts.  She similarly gushed about Carter and told us the cutest story about how he noticed something in one book in a series he's reading that made a reference to another book in the series, and how he was desperate to tell her about it.  She said that he's not very talkative with in-class activities, which is opposite the kid we know at home most of the time, but when he gets excited about something, you can't get him to quit talking about it!  That sounded a lot more like it!  He's a bit behind on his reading level, but his teacher said reading is the one thing that gets him excited--which was also surprising since he doesn't seem to be a big fan at home.  She's not worried and said that his usual issues are normal for first graders.  We've known it's a struggle for him, though, so it's definitely something to work on.  On the bright side, they started a new reading program this year and there are a lot of resources to help him move up to the next level.  I'm thankful for that, and that he seems to have some enthusiasm for it.  His teacher is pleased, so I guess that's good.

He still insists he doesn't have many friends at school, but I'm thinking he's probably fine.  I was annoyed to see four of his soccer teammates in the next classroom over, because any of them might have helped supplement the twin siblings who were pretty much the only carryovers from his last class.  He did, however, have a playdate last weekend with his little buddy Elias, who was his daycare buddy for the last couple summers.  They did that while I was on my adventure with Mary, and while it went well, apparently the boys hid when Craig came to get Carter and it got a bit crazy.  I guess this is something Elias has done before, and we know Carter loves to hide when we pick him up some days.  They were so good and so quiet that it took a long time to find them.  Elias' parents were pretty ticked!  It sounded like things cooled off after, though I still apologized to his mom via text.  She seemed fine, though.  His birthday party is next weekend, so hopefully that goes better.

We're still a bit concerned with his affection for screens, though, and when I found the tablet in his school bag the other morning, that led to a pretty quick banning of it.  It's made for an interesting weekend without much technology at all, but he's surviving!  It's amazing how creative he can get when he has to.  Messy creativity, mind you, but creativity nonetheless.

As for Jacob, he's doing okay.  He has a lot of complaints, but he honestly seems to be doing fine.  He doesn't seem to have a lot in common with his classmates so far, which is hard for him.  It's a very small class, so it's a change for him to have so few kids to choose from.  A lot of them attended Catholic school together previously, and apparently those friend groups are hard to crack.  It doesn't help that he's pretty particular and looking for a certain type of personality to befriend, but some of what he's shared about them makes it clear it's an odd group.  He does have some friends within his house in other grades, which helps.  He could get some additional kids in his class over the next few years, too, since most senior classes seem to finish off with a lot more kids than the 15 or so that they have now.  Hopefully modified sports will make that easier next year also--assuming there is a next year.  He spends a lot of time talking about his old friends and what they're experiencing in public school, and there are times I think he'd rather be there--even if his best friends wouldn't be in the same school anyway.  Given how much we're paying for this, I suppose it wouldn't be the worst thing if he switched, but that would make this year's tuition sort of a waste and we really do like a lot about the experience he could have there in the long run.  Academically he's doing pretty well, all things considered.  I think the middle school demands have been an adjustment, but he's managing just fine.  All of his grades so far are in the 90s--a few in the low 90s and a few in the upper 90s.  We're pleased with that, for sure.  I'm not sure if he's just smart or if their expectations are lower than what was happening in public school, but I take comfort from their 100% college acceptance rate.  Could be a lot worse, that's for sure, and hopefully he'll stick with it, but we're keeping an eye out to make sure none of his frustrations get to be too much.

As for me, I'm hanging in there.  The early mornings are still a bit of a struggle.  I'm probably doing better than I expected, but there is still this feeling I get when my alarm goes off that I can only describe as utter disbelief.  When it happens at 5:55am, it always feels like it's still the middle of the night.  No matter when I go to bed, no matter how well I sleep, it always feels like it's still 3am when it happens.  Oddly, there's less of the complete exhaustion feeling that I used to have waking up at 6:30, but I think some of that is just being more responsible with my bedtime.  I'm struggling a bit more with that lately--though I can't tell if that's a symptom of being busy, or maybe it's because our evenings haven't been quite as busy as they were for a while and therefore I'm a little less structured.  Craig and I are struggling to have alone quality time before bedtime, because inevitably whoever puts Carter to bed falls asleep with him for a while--me for maybe a half hour, him until I go in and wake him up to come to our bed.  I should be smart enough to put on his music and leave him right away, but I do recognize that he won't be little like this for much longer.  So, in the meantime, our DVR is full and might never get cleared out.  Blogging takes an extra day or two.  There are probably house things that I'm ignoring.  Christmas is going to be a disaster because I am always up until midnight no matter what I do.  Evenings are a little better than they used to be, particularly now that I'm not stuck in construction traffic for an extra 20 minutes every day.  It doesn't feel like a big help on nights I have to grab Carter, but it is better and will be helpful once basketball starts (and on Halloween!) since I won't have as much of a rush to get through dinner.  The flow of my work day still feels a little unnatural (longer morning, and 4:30 tends to sneak up on me on busy days), but I think eventually that will get easier.  I've also been sick for three weeks--just obnoxious nasal congestion, particularly in one nostril, and lots of pressure.  I'm over the mouth breathing and not wanting to get anyone else sick.  It wakes me up at night, even with medicine because it eventually wears off, and I have a hard time falling back to sleep if I can't breathe through my nose.  Even though the mucus is generally clear and it's not in my chest, I'm getting close to calling my doctor because it's fatiguing and just doesn't seem to be going away.  In general, I'm treading water okay right now, but I don't know how long it will last before something gives.

Craig just had a very busy weekend to open training camp at work.  We barely saw him, which is tough for the kids--and hard for me when the kids get me to my breaking point and no one else can take over.  Jacob asked about 400 times this weekend to watch The Simpsons Movie, and on top of the usual sibling shenanigans and homework complaints, I pretty much told him to stop talking to me by Saturday night.  Anyway, Craig's hard season is just starting, so we'll see how that goes.  If I haven't mentioned it recently, he's down more than 30 pounds, so at least he's got that going for him.  He looks great and may be bankrupting us trying to keep himself clothed, but we're all very proud of him and his hard work.  He has likely bought back at least a few years of his life, and I'm eager to see what his cholesterol looks like when it gets checked on Tuesday.  He's done it all very gradually, so hopefully that means that it will be easier to maintain.  He's definitely making workouts and better eating a priority.  That, along with his lactose intolerance, gives me an extra challenge with cooking, but we're managing.

Currently Wednesday night is Jacob's confirmation class and my bible class.  On Friday Jacob has had basketball training, but that will be ending and we'll switch to twice-a-week basketball practice over the next couple weeks.  Craig will be going to practices on Tuesdays, too, for work, mostly out of town.  It'll be a whole new phase of adjustments around here, which I guess is something we've grown accustomed to.  We're hanging in there.  I think I'd give us a solid B right now, if this was a report card.  Definitely room for improvement, if nothing else!

Wall-to-Wall Weekend

There was not a dull moment this past weekend...at all!  From the moment I left work to the moment my head hit the pillow, I pretty much had some sort of purposeful activity happening.  It was great, but boy, am I tired!

I left work on Friday very excited to get home and spend about 24 hours with my college roommate Mary.  We had a concert, Geneseo time, and fall foliage viewing on our agenda for the weekend (and kid-free, no less!).  Of course, my carefree eagerness was a bit short-lived when I ran into bad traffic for the first time since the summer-of-construction-hell project ended and all the lanes on my route home from work reopened a few weeks ago.  It's been lovely smooth sailing ever since...until Friday, when it not only held me up, but also help up Mary, who is even less of a fan of traffic jams!  Even worse, the accident that caused all managed to be in the exact spot to back up both potential routes she could have taken to get to my house.  Ugh.  So we were late getting out of the house, then had an inexplicably long wait at our fast food joint of choice, which had us getting to the concert venue not long before the time printed on the tickets.  Fortunately, the time on the tickets was wrong--a half hour early--and there was a line out the door anyway due to security checks.  So all we really missed was standing out in the cold longer, and we still managed to snag pretty decent general admission seats.  We were excited to see Switchfoot, which I figured out was for the fourth time together.  We saw them once in college (at this same campus but in another venue when they were practically college kids themselves), once in 2014 in Syracuse, and again a couple years ago in the same spot as Friday's show.

As usual, the show was fantastic!  It was extra fun, actually, as they did two sets--one acoustic set, and one full-on rock set.  Both sets featured audience requests, and it was fun to hear some older songs that I never got to see in concert, since my concert-going days didn't start until about six albums in, aside from the college one, which was the first time I ever heard them at all!  They had this "shipwreck" theme that ran through the show, as most of the songs came from difficult circumstances in life, and they were pretty true to it!   

Notice the sail behind them!  There were also boat parts on stage that you can't see from here.

The lead singer said he learned to play the ukulele for this tour, because it seemed appropriate for someone stranded on an island after a shipwreck.

At the beginning of the second act, two of the band members, including the lead singer, popped up in the crowd about six rows in front of us!

It's always a high energy, passionate show!

The second act featured the "escape route" from the shipwreck, so this balloon was part of the set.

Singing "family style"

They (and the audience) picked some great songs, and we both really enjoyed it!  After quick late-night stops at Starbucks and Wegmans to acquire some breakfast necessities (and things I needed for Sunday), we headed home and went to bed pretty quickly.  We had a big day ahead!

The plan on Saturday was to spend time in Geneseo, and then head a bit further south to Letchworth State Park to do some leaf peeping, since my family is not really a big fan of that!  We did it a few years back, with moderate success, and Carter and I did a bit more a couple years ago when we crashed the annual family camping trip, but their patience for lots of stops and fairly similar nature views is rather low.  Mary posted some pretty nature photos a few months back, and when I commented on my family's lack of desire to hike, she suggested we do some of that when she was in town, particularly since it was going to be very near peak leaf conditions by then.  And sure enough, it was!  But first up, Geneseo!

Going back to Geneseo is always very heartwarming for me.  I only lived there for parts of four years, but it feels like home in a way few other places do.  It was a perfect sunny day to soak up all that is wonderful about the campus and the village! 

The Seuss Spruce!  It was damaged by a winter storm many years ago and has since grown all crazy!  Also notable that this quad was under crazy construction for a solid year and has now been completely rebuilt.  Fortunately the Seuss Spruce and the painted Greek tree were spared.

Ahhh, Sturges!

This tree was on our walk over to the residential quad where we lived all four years.  It was gorgeous!  This softened the blow of realizing one of my favorite other trees on campus that turned a vibrant orange (and was the subject of one of my favorite fall pics ever) was the victim of the aforementioned quad reconstruction.

This is the view from the long, cold walkway we'd walk every day to class.  The stadium in the middle ground of the photo was not there at the time.  Neither were the townhouses (not pictured) that I was standing between to take this shot.  Kids today will never know what horizontal winter winds off that valley felt like!

I love that archway...particularly when the ivy changes colors in the fall!

There seemed to be a lot happening on campus that day...lots of tours, an activity fair in the student union, and this guy out on the upper quad!

This picture shows a giant periodic table and a Foucault pendulum inside the science building that didn't even exist when we were there.  We had never been inside and decided to check it out since the doors were open.

When we arrived on campus, this upper quad was a mess of construction limbo.  Apparently they had trouble with the contractor and the project was at a standstill for months.  It was all made worse because this apparently used to be a beloved, tree-filled space, and the removal of trees in exchange for concrete did not go over well.  For a long time, those brick pillars did not have the green cupola on them--they just had wires sticking out of their tops.  Eventually they did finish the space and it became a main gathering spot on campus.

We had a good time wandering around and reminiscing, laughing about the things that students today have no concept of, like old-school Mac computers in the dorm study lounges, the offline class registration process, and pre-renovation life in our old dining hall, which now sports a completely different look and dining experience.  The cashier who wouldn't let us into the dining area during pay-one-price brunch probably thought we were crazy as we looked around from the balcony up top!  We reminisced about our old dorm rooms, visited the home of Mary's major that no longer exists, and marveled at the now-not-so-new science building that wasn't even there during our era.  We finished off our Geneseo time with a traditional lunch stop at Mama Mia's for pizza and garlic knots.

Then it was off to our next stop, Letchworth State Park!  Letchworth is the "Grand Canyon of the East", and it's never more fabulous than when the trees are changing color in the fall.  I've seen it with some color change, but probably never quite as much as this weekend...at least not as an adult.  I found these beauties in my parents' photos:

Wow.  Apparently 1985 was a good foliage year.

John and me, 1985

My mom and me, 1982

This trip wasn't as fabulous as those first two pics, but it definitely wasn't too shabby.  We just drove through the park from north to south and stopped at almost every overlook.  Someday maybe I'll get crazy enough to go on trails and see more, but this was enough for one day.

Always have to stop at the dam.  Color wasn't great here, but the dam is always cool.  It was almost dry on the right side.

The bright sun was drowning out some of the color, but it was there if you looked closely.

At the Hogsback Overlook, the color was a little more apparent.

Trees way in the distance had even better color.

Not sure what's more stunning, the rock wall or the fall colors.

Such an inspiring stump--still showing gorgeous fall color despite being cut down!

Color!

This tree was gorgeous.

The tree above is the red tree just to the left of center at the top of the rock.

I keep trying to figure out if this is the same overlook as the old picture above.  I think it is, but it's hard to tell for sure because the river bed looks so different.

The Humphrey Overlook was beautiful, half dead little tree aside.

Mary's and my favorite thing of the day had to be this one red tree in the middle of green.

The views from the Lower Falls are cool, although it was very mucky trying to get down there and the footbridge was closed, which was a huge bummer.

Still a good view without the bridge angle, though!

Inspiration Point is the best.  Bridge in the distance, two falls in view.

The color was a little better than what the picture above shows.

The Upper Falls, with my first official view of the new railroad bridge without the old one in the way.

Down at the Middle Falls, with a gorgeous rainbow!

Doesn't get much better than that.  Stunning.  And that is definitely the same waterfall as the last two old pictures above.

It was a beautiful day, just warm enough, and we had a nice time stopping at all the sights.  We drove out of the park near the south end and worked our way back north to Geneseo, where we stopped at Aunt Cookie's to pick up subs for dinner.  From there we stopped at Livingston County Pizza Company, where there was a gluten-free donut order waiting for us, as well as a pizza I ordered at the last minute for the boys.  Mary left right when we got back so she minimized her time in the dark, but it was a great 24 hours with her!  I was content to just look through all my pictures that night, and I fell asleep by 10pm.  It had definitely been a full weekend already!

Sunday still held more fun, however!  While I don't like skipping church for "fun" reasons (particularly after already missing the last two weeks for the wedding and Toronto), we were faced with a dilemma.  We hadn't been able to squeeze in pumpkin patch time yet this month, and with Craig working almost all next weekend, we had two options: skip church and go Sunday morning, or hold out for next Sunday afternoon and risk the weather forecast, which was currently showing rain and cold.  The forecast for this Sunday was pretty perfect, however--warm enough and increasingly sunny.  So, we skipped church. 😬 Don't worry, there will be many consecutive weekends when we are there.  Terrible as it sounds, my kids will probably get more short term benefit out of family quality time than an hour of Sunday School anyway.  It's not like it's a habit to skip, so I think we're okay.

Of course, it wasn't the only thing on our agenda for Sunday, so we had to make the most of a short period of time!  I think we did pretty well...

Doesn't the camel look like it's smiling for the picture?

Jacob loves the jumping pillow!

Annual pic on the hayride...ignore Jacob's crazy smile.  Ugh, tweens.

There was a new ropes course this year, and Carter loved it!

Craig gave it a shot, as well!

I tried this section myself.  Definitely a challenge, but both boys did well with it!

Carter on the corn throne!

As usual, the sports section was a favorite.  Jacob could shoot hoops all day.

Carter preferred the tetherball.  Every time I hit it back the other way, he giggled like crazy as it flew back toward him!

The boys shooting apples out of the launcher.  See that bus in the background?  We were shooting them way over it!

Feeding the goats...Craig loved that little black one.

Carter finally did the zip line and loved it!  Jacob did it for the first time last year, and this year Carter was tall enough so he was all in!  He did great and always beat us to the end.  Of course, his dismounts were a little awkward since he's still pretty short.  We spent a lot of time chasing him down to return his rope to the start!

The last gasp of summer

Carter and me racing down the slides

We didn't do as much as we normally would, but it's tough to tell if that was the time constraints or just that the kids are growing up.  We still had a great time, though, and even picked out some pumpkins (which hasn't happened there the last few years--usually we end up doing that at the indoor pumpkin patch we go to on rainy days).

Back at home, we wolfed down some lunch and I gathered up some casserole ingredients before we hopped back in the van to drive to Buffalo for my family's annual Oktoberfest.  It was at my Aunt Lynne's new house.  She used to live in Rochester, and with my uncle passing away a couple years ago and her getting older, it made more sense for her to be back in her hometown with all of her remaining siblings (plus one son) for support.  My cousin Lori has moved into her Rochester house, so at least we still have some family nearby.  Lori was actually able to hop in the van with us that day to save herself the drive!  The new house is absolutely perfect for my aunt, and still makes for a great party house!  Other than time spent watching the Bills' game inside, we spent most of the afternoon and early evening outside enjoying some of the last nice weather of the season.  The food was great, and the best part for the kids was that there was a basketball hoop!

It was originally set pretty low, so of course Jacob was trying to dunk!

Around sunset we took off.  We made a quick detour to my parents' to trade out some old baby bedding on the crib mattress Carter still uses (since I'm donating most of the extra stuff, I wanted to keep better stuff on that mattress and donate what was there), and also passed by a nearby accident scene that my cousin and her husband witnessed earlier that day (a car went fully INTO a house after running a red light--horrible).  After that, we headed home.  I was very happy to climb into bed that night after a very busy, very fulfilling weekend!  It didn't make Monday any easier, but I'm so thankful for so many fun activities crammed into 54 weekend hours!