First Days and Changes...

Whew!

These last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind.

First, we sent our two oldest away to school.

Elisabeth is excited for her last year before becoming a full-fledged teacher.

(I have to say that it's pretty amazing she's going to finish in four years! Way to go Beth for sticking to it! She's such a great example!)

She's all settled (for the most part--stupid financial aid office!) and enjoying life.

I don't have a picture of her on her first day of school or of us moving her in because she didn't move back home over the summer so we didn't have anything to move back to school. I hope

she took a picture of her first day. And I hope she wore a skirt! (tradition.)

We dropped Jake off a week ago.

Here's a picture of him setting up his desk in his dorm.

It looks a little crammed but really, these were the biggest dorm rooms I've ever seen. His roommate and he decided to put their desks back to back so the could have private study areas. He's got a really nice kid, Riley, for his roommate.

They get along great so far so that's always good.

He's got a crazy hard schedule (if you ask me) but he says it's going to be great.

He started on Monday and loves it so far.

I have to say that it's pretty weird having both of them gone now.

I don't even want to think about next year when Jake leaves on his mission!

Scott started his Junior year last week.

He's so busy right now,

I feel like he's gone away to college too!

Pretty much the only time I see him is driving him to and from his obligations.

He's on the PHS varsity golf team and works for Macey's as a bagger/cart guy.

He's taken on quite a schedule at school this year so I'm a little worried how he'll be able to juggle it all. (Especially this month with golf.) But he's doing it and working really hard.

I hope he'll be able to keep up with it all!

I'm very proud of what a hard worker he his.

He's setting such a good example for his family!

Cole's in high school now.

He started his freshman year last week.

I think he's loving high school!

He's on the JV golf team and doing really well.

He's got some difficult classes this year but is determined to do well.

What more could a mother ask for?

Max started 4th grade last week

(bright green cast and all!).

He cracked me up when we walked into the school for the first time.

Kids were saying hi and, of course, he had to wave with his casted hand!

It just made me laugh!

He's so funny.

He HAD to have an under-armor shirt this year for school. He said it was because it would keep him cool in the hot weather and warm in the cold weather.

Whatever!

He just wanted to look cool!

I think his teacher is going to be great for him this year. She's really structured and Max does well with that.

I'm excited for a good year for him!

Yesterday,

Emma started Kindergarten.

I thought I would have a hard time with it but so far, I've only teared up a couple of times!

To say she was excited would be a total understatement!

When I dropped her off, I got her settled at her desk and her teacher asked if I could stay and help other children get settled while she greeted the children at the door.

So, I was helping children find their desks, etc. and Emma says to me,

"Uh, bye Mommy!"

Yeah, she was ready to get started!

So, now the house is a lot more quiet most of the time, our lives are crazy busy -- especially in the afternoons, we now have homework and projects, we're missing our oldest children like crazy but that's life with children, right?