2015 - 2016 School Year Begins

The beginning of school always brings about much crazy in our household.

This year all 3 of my boys will be going to school on campus. That has NEVER happened before. I have always had at least 1 child homeschooling. Sometimes I have had all 3. Usually, it was a combination of public, virtual, and home school.

This year changed all of that. David is attending the local high school campus. Caleb is at the intermediate school campus, Nathan is at the elementary school, and I am working for JEDI.

With my work, I begin enrollment for my 4 districts the week before the boys go to school.
So the last week of summer break for them is the beginning of the busiest time of year for me.  We have 400+ students to enroll in all classes and meetings with students and guardians back to back.

 I agreed to take 30 students and manage the students who are on campus full time but are taking 1 course via JEDI. I felt a little bit like this when I discovered there were 85 of those single course students - help! :

As the boys enjoyed the last few lazy days of summer, I worked like a crazy lady. But, I got them all enrolled and active.  The first 2 weeks of every quarter are challenging, but the work is so rewarding.

More than half of my students are gifted and talented AP students. I have a handful of "average" students, and the remaining are special needs in some way. (I went back and got my Special Ed. License last school year,)  

The boys all got the teachers we requested and we were thrilled! David's schedule was all that we asked for and we were excited to find that much of his AP English course was based on novels he had already read for entertainment. That will be an easy class for him. 

Here are some pics:

Helicopter Rides and Sweet Corn - The Sweet Ending of Summer

The last event of summer was the Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival. YUM!

The sweet corn is so amazing, It is finger lickin', butter drippin' goodness. Pass the salt!

While we were enjoying our corn, we discovered that helicopter rides were available. Since Nathan has said for years that he wants to be a helicopter pilot, we decided this opportunity needed to be seized.

Here are some of my most favorite quotes:

Caleb: "That was the BEST part of summer!"
Nathan: "I am gonna be a helicopter pilot for SURE!"

I think they liked the helicopter ride at the Sweet Corn Festival in Sun Prairie. The corn was pretty amazing too.

Kitchen Flooring is Done!

The house remodeling continues...

After 15 years of HATING the heat vent in our kitchen, it is finally moved.

The heat vent was right in front of the oven. With a golden retriever shedding, this was always unpleasant. As soon as I would start cooking, the AC or the heat would turn on. Then all her dog hair would blow right up into whatever I was cooking. Oh yes... that was infuriating!

So, I was crossing off major house projects on the list and I finally came to the kitchen flooring. I knew this was my chance to get that vent moved! I can't believe I am telling you this, but I happily paid $300 to move that vent less than 6 feet. It is now near the wall and out of the main walkway. It never blows dog hair into my cooking. In fact it does not interfere with our kitchen table or chairs either. Oh happy day!

Then the flooring went in. The flooring itself was easy. Moving that HUGE refrigerator was not so easy. You cannot move the fridge into another room without taking the doors off. It is so much bigger than the doorway on both sides. But after much outside of the box thinking, we discovered that it would be less risk and pain in the butt to take the washer and dryer out of the room and put the fridge in the laundry nook.  Since the washer and dryer both fit thru the doorway and the shelving in there was easily removed, we took it all out and shoved the fridge in there for a day.  It just BARELY fit.

The flooring got done and then I moved the fridge, washer, and dryer back in place. This was such a huge undertaking, but I am so glad it is done. Everything is reinstalled and clean. It all looks brand new!

Here is how it turned out:

I am so happy with the results. The moving of the vent was the best $300 home improvement ever!

More House Remodeling - Upstairs Hallway/Closet

The house remodeling and updating continues. It has been more of a marathon than a sprint.

Our stairs have been refinished and our hallway carpeting was removed. Underneath the old carpet we found hardwood flooring that was painted fire engine red. Why would you ever do that?

We had our handyman sand it all off and replace broken boards. We removed our banister and replaced broken stair nose flooring. Then I finished the staining and put carpeting in the walk in closet. After many years of wanting more wardrobe space, I built the second half of the closet storage. We now have an AWESOME walk in closet and storage space. 

Now it looks like this:

I am elated. Time to go shopping for more clothes. Well, let's be honest....shoes.

Our new ceiling

For those of you who have seen our house this summer, I apologize. It has been a construction zone! We took down the old tile ceiling and broken crown molding and replaced it with drywall and texture and new crown molding. Well, that was expensive and a mess, but I have wanted to do this project since the day we moved in.

Like all old house projects, we found a surprise once we opened the ceiling. Our previous owners had our heating and air conditioning vented with dryer vent tubing. What? My contractor was like: "Ummmm... come and look at THIS!"  That will increase the estimate and delay the project completion date. Yeah, no kidding! Let's make that right before we put the ceiling back together.

 I am so thankful to the Lord that we did not burn this house down with that dyer venting. If you know the layout of my house at all you know that that ceiling/floor would be the absolute worst place to have a fire in here! We would have had to jump from the boys back window (We have a fire safety ladder in that room just in case.) My goodness, what were they thinking? How much did they save by doing that? I am not a violent person, but let me tell ya, I would like to shake those people, while screaming "What were you thinking?"

Additionally, we 'scope creep' the project even more and had an electrician come and wire the room for overhead lighting and a ceiling fan. I am giddy with the result! (I bought 6 different ceiling fans until I found the "right one". I was determined to find one where the blades matched the gorgeous wood work - found it!)

The ceiling is BEAUTIFUL.  I can finally see in the living room. The detail work on the crown molding is gorgeous. I am ecstatic, I should be for what it cost. eek.

Here is the old ceiling as we began to tear it out:

 Here is the new one:

Crescent Lake Bible Camp

Today is our last day at beautiful Crescent Lake Bible Camp in Rhinelander WI. David has been here for 2 weeks, but the rest of the family has been here for one.  We have had wonderful weather with very few mosquitoes.

We have been able to enjoy boating, tubing, biking, hiking, riflery, archery, sports, skits, and some rockin' chapel worship. This place is a little piece of heaven. The counselors are mature believers (college age) who really love the kids. The boys 4-6 grade cabin stinks like teen spirit! Whew.

John and I had work responsibilities that we needed to attend to this week, but both of us are blessed to be able to complete so much of our jobs anywhere there is wifi. So we could work in the early mornings and the evenings and enjoy activities with the kiddos. I have not prepared a meal or cleaned up after one in a week. This is living! I am so grateful for the life I have. I am a blessed woman indeed.

Here are some pictures of the activities for you to enjoy:

A surprise visit

I took a quick drive to Wausau today to have lunch with my amazing grandmother.  For those of you who are grand mothering right now, never underestimate the power of your influence in your grand kids lives. This woman means the world to me. Even though we see each other one or two times a year, I think of her almost daily. I have a great deal of respect for this amazing 93 year old lady. Her life is a beautiful testimony of hard work, true faith, joy that is contagious, and a life well used for His glory. Thank you Grandma Inga for all you taught me, modeled for me, invested in me, and all the countless prayers you prayed for me. I adore you!