School So Far

The boys are having a great time at school!

Zack is loving Grade One. He had a hard time adjusting from kindergarten though - no more playing all day, instead he's sitting at his desk doing work. The first few days Zack was pretty sad, he came home depressed that all they did was work. Poor guy, only 11 more years to go. Now that he's adjusted, he loves school again. Zack is making new friends, finding the time to play at recess, and is really excelling in his schoolwork. The biggest change in him since starting school? He now talks even MORE. I never thought it would get like this. Zack gives us a step-by-step descriptive replay of every moment. We won't miss a thing anymore! Besides talking, Zack is still into drawing and reading.

Nathan is having a great time in Kindergarten. His teacher, Miss Fraser, definitely has her hands full! Nathan is everywhere at once in his classroom. His favorite thing about school is when they have library day - he's so proud to bring home a new book every week to show us. All of his choices so far have been books on dinosaurs and animals, and we read them every day. At least Nathan still loves to cuddle among the rest of his activities. His favorite thing ever is still Lego, and it's the first thing he wants to play with every day.

I've enjoyed having both boys in school; people have been asking me, "what on EARTH are you doing with ALL that spare time??" Between making sure the house is all clean so that I can maximize my time with the kids after school and my hotels job with Lafrentz, the day is over so quick. It's nice that the boys get the chance to be somewhere they can make noise! When I'm booking hotels for Lafrentz, I'm constantly telling the boys, "Shhhh, mommy's on the phone with a hotel." So it's nice for them that they don't have to spend the day being quiet while mommy's being boring! Especially since my hotels job has grown enough that I need to work every day.

The boys are becoming so much more independent now. Zack is taking showers by himself, brushing his own teeth, and putting away his laundry. Nathan still needs help for most of this kinda stuff, but for everything else, he prefers to do it himself. I think it's a second-born thing. On the days that only Zack has school, he wants me to drop him off at school - I stay in the car with Nathan and Zack gets out and goes inside. He started doing this the last month of kindergarten. But Nathan wants to do it NOW. So when we pull up to the school, both boys get out, put on their backpacks, and hold hands all the way to Nathan's classroom. I still go inside the school to pick them up, I won't stop doing that part. Nathan's still a momma's boy, and he loves to see me waiting outside his class after school, but he needs that independence... Sigh.

Shooting the Shooting

A few shots of me shooting handguns...

Feeling Stylish!

I have discovered something awesome. Buying glasses online. While some people think it sounds stupid or shady or too good to be true, I decided to go for it. What have I got to lose? Well, besides $8.00 a pair (a COMPLETE pair - lenses included!).

A few months ago I decided to take the plunge and order a $29 pair from goggles4u.com. They weren't too bad at all - I've heard stories about people buying glasses online that had mega-thick lenses that they couldn't even see through because the perscription was all wrong. Here's the first pair of glasses I bought:

Once I got this pair (and a pair of perscription sunglasses too), I heard about zennioptical.com and ordered a few pairs from them. I love Zenni - their selection is huge, and their prices go from just $8.00 a pair up to $34.95. So for less than the price of one boring pair of glasses from a random optometrist around here, I now own 9 pairs of glasses (2 of them sunglasses). Here are some of my favorites:

I love being able to pick glasses every day to go with what I'm wearing - it's super fun. I'd totally recommend it - best 8 bucks I've ever spent.

A New Experience

So Amanda and I have talked about going to the gun range with her dad (a firearms expert for the government) for a few years now. Every time we've planned it, it has fallen through for one reason or another. So a few days ago, Amanda sent me a text asking if I could come to the range on short notice and we made our date. So yesterday I shot a gun for the very first time. It was stressful at the beginning - knowing that you're about to have fun with something that kills people is a tad intimidating! But luckily Amanda's dad trains people to shoot all the time, and is an excellent teacher. I got to shoot a revolver, a 9mm automatic handgun, and a rifle. After a few hours (and LOTS of ammo!), I got the hang of it. Here's my target from the rifle. Not too bad at all!

Santa

So the boys (but especially Nathan) are all about Santa. I mentioned in the car that I was planning the Lafrentz Kids Christmas Party (as I have been for the last few years), and that I needed to call Santa when we got home so that I could book him for the party. Nathan gasped and said in an excited squeaky voice, "You mean you have Santa's PHONE NUMBER??" Of course this was followed by many, MANY questions about Santa's whereabouts, how on earth I could know him, and if I could ask him to bring Nathan Lego for Christmas.

First Day Of School!

Well, last week, both my boys started school. They were so excited that I just couldn't be sad! Zack started Grade 1 - he's in a 1/2 split with a great teacher, and Nathan started Kindergarten with the same teacher that Zack had. I hope she knows what she's in for!