A Few First Days

Yesterday was Cooper's 'real' first day of school. Carter's first day of school fell on the 1st of the month. That was Cooper's first day at the new day care. Cooper's next 'first' day was the third, when we went to meet the teacher. Cooper's next first was the ninth, where there was a handful of his classmates attending. And yesterday brought us to the first day of the rest of his junior kindergarten life. So far things have been going well. I've seen a bit of a change in Cooper (well, in Carter too.) Cooper seems to be mellowing a little and whatever nasty phase he was going through is seemingly subsiding. Carter, unfortunately on the other hand, has gotten into a little trouble at school with swearing. What? This kid has never done that. He's the compliant one! Today he actually used the F# and had to go to the principal's office. I had no coverage at the office so Chris went over to investigate. (He's grounded for a week, by the way.)

Cooper, who had been taking a foray into swearing and general meanness these past few months, has settled into his new routine well. Though today he did call me a nasty name when I was trying to herd him in for supper. ::sigh::

So aside from all the swearing issues (Oh and by the way again, I have been known to spout off a few myself, but I always acknowledge them and apologize. The kids? Not so much.) things have been settling well into our routines.

Let's see. The rest of our little camping trip went well. One evening last week we had a very intoxicated man wander into our yard. I was inside with the kids and Chris was out by the firepit with the neighbours. The guy came flailing down the lane and spouting something about being a vampire and an alien or something. Our neighbour spoke to the guy at which point he stopped walking and started to vomit blood. They called 911 and the ambulance and a few police cars showed up. All this was happening while I was in the house with the kids and I knew about none of it. After it was all over Chris (finally) came in to ask if I saw the whole thing. What? No!!! Come and get me when weird stuff happens in our neighbourhood!

At the end of the Labour Day weekend the weather was still fantastic and we actually took the boys to the beach! (Pictures included in slideshow) Last Tuesday Mom and Dad had us over for supper. We hadn't really had a good visit since our little family reunion last month. We had fantastic spaghetti and Mom used her Grandma magic to get the boys to eat all of theirs. On Tuesday we had fresh, pan-fried walleye with homemade French fries. On Thursday I went to a farmer's market to pick up some yellow squash for supper. We had grilled chicken that night with it. Yum!

Last Friday I went downtown with Kelly and Sharon. Kelly needed to find a new bathing suit since her...ahem...'girls' made their way out of her former swimsuit at her aquafit class. We didn't find anything at the first store so we went on to another (one I LOATHE...because even the sales prices are atrocious.) I was busying myself looking at the sale rack of bathing suits when I actually found one I liked. I went to try it on and actually liked it on! I mean, even enough to show Kelly and Sharon. I was pretty excited and looked at it for the price tag. I noticed there was no sale tag so I asked the clerk if this item was a sale item or not. Apparently only some of the items on the rack were on sale, seemingly every single other one but the one I wanted. I put it back on the rack and never ventured far from it. I was bummed, not wanting to pay full price. It's been two or three years since I bought a new swimsuit; the last one I bought for sixteen dollars at the end of summer. So I bit the bullet and took it up to the cashier, making a couple hinty comments about it not being on sale. I really hoped she would say, oh let me just give you twenty percent off. Nope. Bummer! So I am the proud owner of a swim suit I don't hate, at a price that I do.

On Sunday, I got up and made a split-second decision to go to church. My hair was salvageable and Cooper was game to go. We made it in perfect time and sat with Mom and Auntie Lurdes. After breakfast we met up with Dad and Mom and a few of their friends. The remainder of the weekend is becoming hazy at best since I've been such a ''wayward blogger'' as Angie put it.

The weather has remained fantastic this week again, so Chris capitalized on it and went sea-dooing with some coworkers last night. I let the boys ride their bikes down to the riverfront so we could watch. That was an exercise in frustration and exhaustion. The boys didn't listen well about the rules of STOPPING or LISTENING. Luckily we made it there alive. They kept going way ahead of me (I was walking). We watched Chris and the guys for awhile. Carter didn't seem to want to ride his bike anymore so Chris took it in his friend's truck. Cooper was really eager to ride his bike to the park while Carter and I walked. The boys played at the park for awhile then we made our way home, stopping to take pictures on all the rocks along the way. The boys were being pretty photogenerous and these pictures are also included in the slideshow.

Today was an insanely busy day at work (and at school as this blog post comes full circle to Carter's visit to the principal.) Kelly asked me to join her and her friends at waterfit (or aquafit) or whatever it's called. I was intrigued and said I would go along. I do, after all, have a nice new swimsuit to wear now! I had lunch with Chris. After work I picked up the boys and we all got home at the same time as Chris. I took Cooper to get a few school snacks and some hot dogs for a quick supper since I was going out.

I walked to the fitness centre to meet up with Kelly and the girls. I absolutely LOVED the class and will definitely go again. Kelly and I walked home together. Two sleeping boys were strewn about the living room so I dug out the laptop to do some catching up. Whew! I feel like everything is so disjointed when I blog after so long, but it feels good to get things flowing again. I used to be able to spew paragraphs about what seemed like the most mundane days, but I can't seem to muster anything lately. Hopefully I can stay on the upswing and keep it up to document the goings-on of the boys at least.