Phillip and Evelyn's special days, Gowen Thunder

It’s Evelyn’s 10th birthday today! Hooray! Friday, Phillip turned the magical age of 14! There is a lot of excitement around here today. Evelyn’s fondest birthday wish was that no one would yell at her today (sad?!) and everyone get along. I agree! Last night a spectacular lightening storm entertained me for over an hour, shades of those storms I recall from Tucson. Evelyn wanted crinkly hair, aka wet hair braided last night, and to wear her cute pink dress. For dinner she requested Greek salad and dole whip for her birthday treat! I quite love that my kids don’t settle for cake most of the time. She is quite the girl, keeps us all entertained and on our toes. 

School is a bit frustrating right now. I am hyper-focused on the lack of curriculum which seems to impede progress. I finally got all the the usernames and passwords on Thursday in the form of printed label sheets. Guess what? In my only 30 minute break I’m expected to put all 600 names on index cards and laminate the label part with clear stickers. The older grades were quite bummed to make paper computers. The activity was quite messy with scissor work, glueing and coloring all involved. We learned about parts in a computer and function names of browser screen icons. I was paying close attention, watching to see who followed directions and who did not. That was the most revealing part for me. I ended up asking the other paras and the front office staff to help me get the name cards made so I could move on to computer lessons by Tuesday. Before then I need to learn how to make substitute plans for Wednesday and Friday. One adorable student saw me at Walmart yesterday, she ran up and gave me a hug. Another young man saw me at the football game, same thing…no hug! Justin got me an Apple Watch to keep track of texts, phone calls, and time throughout the day. It’s been a literal godsend. I’ve set alerts to let me know 10 minutes before each class ends, still with all the flying paper and clean up my class was late most of the week. I used a magic wand on Friday turning the first graders into cleaning cats and dogs. They got a special stickers after cleaning up two fistfuls of paper. I had the naughty 5th graders again on Friday, they were the worst. Complaining and carrying on about the stupid activity, I sent 6 students to sit in the hall for being rude. I read a book on classroom management for specials teachers. Basically, I broke every rule and have a steep learning curve. It will take grace and time to get where I want to be as a teacher. At this point I don’t want to come back next year, too much work, not enough support or resources. 

Phillip was enthused to have Sam back for drums. Sam was very excited to tell us about his summer tours. He is the best. I heard Sam challenge Phillip to listen to piano music then create a rhythm to pair with the music. Phillip did a great job inventing a pop rhythm for a pop song, jazz style for jazz, and etc. Josie also moved up to a new violin book. She can play rounds with Mrs Jessica and is playing fiddle songs faster! Still hates to play at home but is willing to do it most of the time. 

Justin and the older kids picked peaches at the church orchards on Wednesday. They picked all the peaches on our two rows. In previous years they only picked the ripe peaches then had to come back for a second picking. There were enough peaches for the canneries the first picking! 

Right after work on Thursday Amelia and I had a gig at the football game selling concessions. Students can earn school money at the concessions stands during school sports. All the extra earnings are split equally between the students who help out! Amelia got two shares since I was the parent who helped out. It was stinking’ HOT drawing lots of folks over for drinks. I think the 3 girls earned a good $600 total, minus supplies they made about $200 each. A group of punk 9th graders were running around trying to be cool. They asked for everyone’s phone numbers, yeah, no thanks. We ran out of nacho chips, boo hoo. I ran the sizzling hot popcorn machine after someone got burned. My watch said I was standing for 15 hours that day. 

Friday was Phillip’s big day. Unfortunately, it was a boring school day. I am not getting home until 4:30 pm, so we barely had time to celebrate. Phillip wanted Burke for his berkday dinner. He is watching How to Train your Dragon the past few weeks, so Hiccup et al. live on Berk. Ha ha ha. Justin worked late, I did not have time to shop for berries or yogurt. Those items did not make the shopping list last week, everyone was asleep when I went grocery shopping. Soooooo, birthday dinner out on the town it was! Phillip really wanted the same pizza we had last year. We drove out to Boise for a fun evening. I enjoyed sitting on the patio, the heat had receded so it was decent outside. Evelyn was acting very silly, her normal silly self. Phillip looked way too grown up with his phone and wallet on the table and an ear bud in his ear listening to Gryphon Chronicles. Gracious, these kids are growing up fast. Phillip ate an entire pizza. I ordered second root beers just because it was a special day, and the drink tasted delish. Phillip requested a cheesecake for his special dessert. I groaned inside. No more energy in my body for hours in the kitchen. Sara saved me, she got a Costco cheesecake on Thursday. Phillip did not know about the cheesecake. We stopped at Winco for ice cream instead. Surprise! You got ice cream and cheesecake. His big gift is a Bark phone. It is mostly shut entirely down except for texting, calling, and audio books. I found a Star Wars Lego and LED light kit for him to play with. He also got a new scooter. Yay. We love our goofball. 

Saturday we were up and at ‘em by 8 am. Justin is taking the fun activity role now with me now dead tired after work. I find him giggling, he thinks I finally understand him. No dear, you still don’t understand. I am still up all hours of the night with kids, make dinner, clean with the girls, garden, manage music, manage laundry, and play chauffeur AND work all day on my feet. I am very proud to day I am keeping my promise, no soda! I’ve even managed to stay away from the caffeine packets. Pat my back please. Justin wanted to attend the Gowen Thunder airshow at Gowen airfield. Gowen is the base for Idaho Air National Guard. Interestingly, the only other military base is Mountain Home not too far from Boise. Traffic was a crazy tangled mess. Traffic cops routed us back onto the freeway to take the exit after the base and wind our way back. We parked in warthog parking. The info page said to bring empty water bottles or hydration pack and fill those at the show. The military personnel just shook their heads at the strange request on a 100 degree day. We boarded a shuttle that dropped us off at the airstrip. Amelia ran into one of her friends from FSY! The kids got a photo taken with Top Gun look alikes, the Tom Cruise guy was spot on. We stood in line for an hour to climb inside a B-52 that flew 15+ missions during WWII in Italy. We were completely parched with no water in sight. Everyone was cranky with the heat and lack of water. We finally made it to a military water tank fitted with multiple spigots, we finally got our hydration packs hydrated. Merciful heaven…some guys were passing out free cans of cold water. I drank about 4 right there on the spot, not the smartest thing to do! Tasted like Manna. Amelia spotted a hot dog stand near the entrance. All the concession lines were a quarter of a mile long?! The stand tucked in the corner was run by a local motorcyclist group. It also had the best deal of all, $8 for a large hot dog, toppings, and a gatorade. The heavens opened up and poured rain for a good 5 minutes, felt amazing while it came down. Then it went from cool to broiling hot with the humid air trapped on the ground. Phew, it was now sauna level. All the screaming airplanes kept us entranced. I busted out my 70-200 m lens then attached a 4x extender tube giving me some serious zoom power. The zoom was fun but tracking the airplanes racing at hundreds of miles per hour was tricky for the focus at the zoom level. So many fun planes. I enjoyed the guys rappelling from helicopters, the paratroopers doing fancy tricks, and the screaming fighter jets. The topping had to be the Thunderbirds, this year a woman was leading the team! We headed to the buses around 3 pm knowing the crowds would be terrible if we waited until 3:30. That meant missing half of the Thunderbird show. We watched the rest from the bus. We all had a terrible thirst for Sonic Limeades and ice cream cones. Right when we got home I went grocery shopping. Amelia went to Hailey’s house for dinner and a movie. Phillip waited patiently for his Berkday dinner, I did not get done until almost 8 pm. Somehow our shower head spring a leak, had to get that fixed. Then the doorknob to the garage through the laundry room crapped out. Geesh. Family fun for everyone!!