Busy Week Again

This past week we stayed pretty busy.

Tuesday evening I attended a two hour parent presentation for parents of kids who are going to Middle School /Jr. High next year. Kevin's school is HUGE!! The city has two Jr. High schools. Kevin will be going to the one near our house, and his class will have 390 students in it. I think there that many kids in my whole high school. We got to tour the school, and it is quite impressive. I felt lost on the tour, and the teachers said all the 6th graders get lost on their first day. The school has designated 8th graders that help the 6th graders get through the first week of school. The day before school officially starts, the 6th graders attend an orientation day. They get to find their way around the school, learn their class schedule, and ect..

Kevin is disappointed that a lot of his best friends in elementary school will be going to the other Jr. High, but I'm sure he'll make lots of new friends on top of the ones that will be in school with him. They split the Jr. High kids into two groups called "houses", and each group has their own side of the 6th grade school area. Within the "house" they have their class rooms. One house will have 200 kids in it and the other house will have 190. Each "house" stays with the same group of kids all year as they switch classes. So for example English teacher A will only see the same 200 kids all year, and English teacher B will see the other group of 190 kids.

All 390 kids will have lunch at the same time. That should be rather interesting. Also, their class schedule will change slightly from day to day as some of the classes are on alternating days. They call them Blue Days and Green Days. For the first part of the year, they will learn Spanish, and the second half of the year they'll learn French. All the kids have to take a Home Ec class, so they'll learn to cook, do laundry, and other household chores. So that is a good thing. They don't have a "shop" class, but instead its called Technological Art. That looked like a fun class to be taking. The current project we got to see was the kids had made rockets that they were going to launch later in the month. Kevin would really LOVE that project.

During the parent night orientation, they had 4 8th grade students each present a speech about the Middle School. It was quite comical. The one kid said the hardest part about Jr. High was learning a new locker combination each year. So I hope that is the worst of our Jr. High happenings, but I'm sure we'll have our growing pains through out as he grows up. It was weird to see the two boys who were speaking had deep voices and hairy legs. They go into Middle School as boys and come out as young men. Yikes, I'm not sure I'm ready for that!

Wed, I took Sam to the bank to cash his check he got for his birthday. He felt like a really big kid signing his name and making a full bank transaction all by himself. He can't wait to go shopping again.

Kevin got his braces readjusted. They did quite a bit of turning and twisting, so he was a bit sore when they were done. The orthodontist put a spring between two of his teeth to separate them some more to make room for the I-tooth that is coming in. Then he got to pick new color of bands. This time he went with Fire Red and Black.

After we were done with that, the boys helped me grocery shop. They sure were good helpers. Not like the old days where they each had to push a cart, run into people, put extra stuff in the cart that didn't belong, and then leave the store before the groceries were bagged...They were pretty good kids, so they each earned a couple dollars for being such good helpers. I think I found their new motivator. Money...hard cold cash...the good stuff.

Then we visited the pet store. This is a nice treat for them. Sam likes to talk to all the cats, memorize their names, and ask me if we can bring them all home with us. Kevin likes to go look at the snakes and lizards and remind me that I promised he could get one when he is 13.

Thursday evening was the first adult league kickball game. Spring season has officially started. We have quite a few new players, and they were pretty good for first timers. Definitely some keepers. We won our game 4-0. Go Kick Busters!! We rotated between 3 pitchers (me included) and we each had a 3 pitch inning during all 9 innings. That was a pretty great feeling. I like pitching much better than playing catcher, short stop, and I'm no good in the outfield. But I'm the captain, so I get to tell everyone where they play.

One guy who signed up for the team decided last night that he didn't want to play this season, so a new player on the team said he knows a guy that can come and play a few games with us. He couldn't make every game, but could make some. The even better news is this new guy was a field goal kicker for the University of Minnesota. Oh yeah...he can play on my team ANYTIME!!

Tomorrow I have a lunch date with the girls I went to Mexico with. I told my grandma we'd have a cocktail and a toast in her honor, since tomorrow is her 101 birthday. Definitely reason to celebrate even if I do live a thousand miles away.

Metal Mania

Yesterday the braces went on with success! He was in the chair with his mouth gaping wide open for an hour and a half. Yikes, that's a long time, but I think that's the longest he's ever gone with out talking, so it wasn't all bad. He wanted me in the room with him because he was a bit nervous. I brought a book with me, but only ended up getting two pages of it read. Oh well, it was worth a shot. The orthodontist decided to be a little Chatty Kathy. He must not get too much adult conversation as he seemed to be happy that he had someone new to talk to. We talked about reality shows and office pools, and poor Kevin couldn't get in one word. I bet that was killing him.

Kevin picked out camouflage colored bands for his braces. They have around 20 solid colors to choose from, and you could pick a color for every brace if you wanted to. Kevin picked green, black, and goldrush. Then they put them on accordingly. He was so happy. He can't wait to show all the kids at school his new grin. (The kids are on spring break right now.) The orthodontist told him he's the first kid to request camouflage. He thought he'd have to tell some of his other patients about that. Kevin just might have started a trend.

Kevin got all his instructions on taking care of his teeth and he got a goodie bag full of rules charts, floss leaders, mouthwash, wax, a travel toothbrush, and lots of other stuff. He got home and had that scattered all over the bathroom counter in a hurry. I'm glad he listened to them and I haven't had to nag about taking care of his grill.

Growing up changes for the oldest caveboy

Last week he went to the orthodontist and got 10 spacers put in his back molars to prepare for getting braces put on this coming week. He said the bottoms one bother him and get a bit painful at times. I imagine so, as he has pieces of plastic stuck between his teeth moving them apart from each other.

He went to school and showed off his new mouth accessories (the cool blue colored spacers) and everyone thought that was pretty cool. Lots of kids his age have braces, and he won't have to wear any head gear. He is now trying to decide what color of rubber bands he wants to have.

Tomorrow he has a full complete eye exam with the optometrist. He has flunked the school eye exam two times in a row, so we may be looking at glasses for him. Double whammy in one week! I hope he adjusts to both major life changes and doesn't get teased at school. Kids can be cruel and will find anything to pick someone apart on their appearance at this age.

My sister sent me a link to an eyeglasses website that has pretty cheap glasses. We will go that route. That way when he breaks them on the playground, sits on them, or looses them we aren't out too much money. Also, I can order them two at a time in different styles. Also, we can take some time to see which pairs he really likes as you can try the styles on using a picture of yourself and take the time to really decide. Choices are a good thing, and there seem to be so many these days.

He has been pretty optimistic about the new changes coming, and has been studying them online. He's officially hit his ugly duckling tween stage of life, and in a couple of years will be a teenaged swan. I look at the kids at his school, and they are all at the same place in life, bodies built like squares, needing braces or glasses or both, and still learning about hygiene.