End of Summer Vacation Update

The kids start school one week from today. I think that the excitement of being home for the summer has definitely worn off and we are READY to start school.  Today we went through clothes and tried on stuff from last year to see what still fits, and I did some online shopping for the stuff we needed.  Yesterday we bought all the school supplies.  In one week we will be back on a schedule and back to sanity (maybe).  I have kind of been on a blogging famine so here is the quick catch-up.

• My nephew Erik got married on Tuesday and Kent and I went to Salt Lake for the wedding.  Our kids spent some time with our friends the Schofields while we were gone.  There was one incident, however, involving scissors and hair.  Adele and her friend Gracie were playing in a room and apparently had some scissors.  Adele thought her ponytail was too long, so, chop chop.  Gracie had kind of an all-over trim.  Gracie's mom "fixed" her hair and then ended up taking her to get it fixed by a pro. I haven't done anything with Adele's because it actually isn't TOO bad and it wasn't a totally blunt-pony-tail-chop-off.  Sometimes I wonder HOW many times Adele will repeat the same naughty shenanigans (and get in trouble) before finally learning.  She definitely wins the "most naughty toddler" award at our house.
• On a particularly stressful day this week I went to the gym for some treadmill therapy and ran my personal longest distance:  7 miles.  It made me think for a minute that I should do a half marathon.   Then I realized that 7 miles is only 1/4 of a marathon and to do 1/2 I'd still have to run another 6 miles.  Hmm. I don't think so. I am too old.  I say that because the DAY AFTER the big run I was moving at great-granny speed with aches and pains all over my body.
• My sister Linda came to visit last weekend with her kids. We had such a fun time and my kids were in cousin heaven.  (I can't believe we didn't even take pictures!  What is wrong with us???)  We did most of the things that we wanted to do but ran out of time before we ran out of activities, treats and things to talk about. I love having sister therapy.  (Thanks Ween for coming to visit!)  I sent her home with a plethora of hair bows.
• I found a huge bug at my friend Dana's house last week and had to collect it for my entomologist brother-in-law.  Dana thought I was totally crazy to capture and keep such a huge and nasty bug but I had to.  For science.   My BIL is a beetle expert and has even discovered several (4?)  new types of beetles.  One of them is named after my sister Kathy. I called Kathy to see if she wanted me to save it and to find out what to do with it.  She said put it in a jar with alcohol and that would kill it and preserve it.  So I did.  Only it didn't die.  It swam around (more like drowned around) and it wouldn't die. So I put it in my pantry so I wouldn't have to look at it.  And then I checked on it awhile later and it was STILL alive. It kept doing this weird hissy thing with its bottom and making bubbles in the alcohol.  Finally I poured MORE alcohol over it and next time I checked it it was FINALLY dead.  Blech.  I will deliver the specimen to my BIL tomorrow when he stops at my house on the way back home to California.  It will be nice to get the thing out of my pantry. (It is on the very top shelf so I don't have to look at it, but STILL!) I think I should have been a biology major in college or something like that.  Not that I love creepy crawly things, but I guess they just fascinate me. (And disgust me, but the fascination wins out.)

• I made tarts tonight. Or "tots" if you say it with an English accent. We make fun of the people at the Shakespearean Festival who sell tarts and talk in bad English accents. My kids were all speaking in English-esque accents while we ate our tarts. When I was first telling Kent I wanted to make some "tots" he thought I was making a reference to the potato delicacies that Napoleon Dynamite puts in his pocket.