Back in Action

So much has happened since my last blog.  Here's some little news snippets to catch you up on the Boyette family and what we've done the last two months.

1.  Claire is now in first grade.  She loves her teacher but is disappointed she's not learning much yet.  I keep telling her it's the beginning of the year and the curriculum will pick up speed soon.  If you don't keep up with her blog, you should.  There's a link at the top of the screen.  At least once a week, sometimes more, I coax her into answering questions to be recorded.  I type exactly what she says and it's pretty funny.

2.  Paul plays flag football for the Ridglea Roughnecks.  Since he was an infant, our friend MJ Rosas has been asking us to put him in football when he's four.  MJ coaches a local team, so Paul is now four and in flag football.  When he's had a nap that day he loves practice and games, but when he's sleepy he's not as enthusiastic.  He's also not very competitive, which is just fine with us.  We focus on brains more than brawn around here.  We just want him to have fun.

3.  Paul is now attending school mostly full-time.  He switched preschool classes today but had a flawless transition.  He'll go Monday through Thursday and we'll have a special day together on Fridays.

4.  My granddad is doing well in his new retirement home. After removing all the family mementos from the house, my cousin and I sold as much as we could.  He donated the rest to Goodwill.  My granddad now has renters in his house, which is providing income for his fancy schmancy apartment.  I'm still sorting all the stuff I brought home from his house.  He enjoys his apartment and is socializing more than I have ever known him to.

5.  I've got another job.  I haven't started yet because there's a backlog on district background checks for employees, but as soon as my paperwork is through all the red tape, I will be a part-time tutor at Western Hill Elementary School.  I'll be focusing on teaching the students (mostly 2nd graders) high frequency words so they can get their reading speed up to grade level.  I would like to thank my friend Ardis Freeman for this opportunity.  I had been going through a difficult time of discernment where I knew I needed a new job but didn't know if I had to quit the one I already had.  This tutoring position is fabulous because I'll work on Mondays and Wednesdays at the school and still work Tuesdays and Thursdays at the church.  Hooray!

6.  My old oven broke and I'm in love with my new oven.  Convection baking!  A warmer drawer!  Five burners!  It preheats in about 10 minutes!  (My last one took two hours to preheat to 400 degrees and I'm not even exaggerating.)

7.  We've gotten half of our house painted.  One day a man came to our door and offered to paint the house for a price we couldn't refuse.  Unfortunately this was before I got my second job so due to budgetary restrictions we split the job into two sections.  He's done with the front half of the house, but the back still needs painting.  We have learned several lessons here, including to only pay for work completed and sometimes you really do get what you pay for.  We don't know if the same guy will finish the house or not.  We hope he does, but for the price, we just don't know if he'll show.  We didn't lose any money, but we are wiser to business deals now.

8.  Our Little Free Library will open soon.  Adam has been working for a few months on construction and we're down to painting and mounting the miniature house which will hold books for our neighbors to borrow.  For more info on this, click on the link at the top of the screen.