On Monday, Frances, Erin and Nathan all start school!! Frances is a senior, Erin is in her last year of middle school and Nathan starts Kindergarten. I'm not sure I'm ready for all this excitement. Gillian is jealous because everyone is going off to school and she doesn't get to go. Poor thing. I think we need to call Hollywood right away because she can really turn on the tears and drama at will.
Frances had a busy summer as usual. She competed in the Santa Clara County Fair with two of her lambs, a goat, and a pig. She won 1st place in "Showmanship", 1st Place for her Breeder lamb, and 3rd Place for her market lamb. I think she got 7th or 8th for her pig. She auctioned her pig through the fair and sold it for $980. She has a private buyer for her lamb and should get between $600 and $700 for the lamb. She's looking for a buyer for the goat but still hasn't identified one yet. So the goat may be living with us eating the weeds in our back yard if she doesn't come up with a buyer sooner rather than later. At any rate the goat is adorable and fun to be around. Not sure that he and Onyx would get along but you never know. I don't think it will come down to that. Usually by the fall there is a buyer for most of the animals that have not yet sold.
Frances took one of her lambs the California State Fair last week but it didn't make the weight requirement, so she she was only able to compete in the "showmanship" class. Overall I think it was a good experience for her, but she was the only person from her local FFA chapter to attend this year so I think she was a little bored. There were however, tons of other FFA kids from all over that state so she was able to meet people she wouldn't otherwise meet. Since she's a FFA Regional Officer this year, it was good to make contact with so many of kids outside chapter. Now when she sees them throughout the year in other events they will have a connection. Frances also got to spend a little time with California State FFA Officer team too which was great because she is thinking about running for a state office in the spring just before graduation. The State officers are usually first year college students, so who knows maybe she'll be lucky enough to be elected next spring.
Frances has only two classes each day so she was thinking of going to the junior college here in town and taking another French class to get started on her college credits.
We have a new AuPair arriving in October. Karin will go back to Sweden in October. The year has just flown by and she's been such a sweet person to have in our home this past year. The new girl is coming from Austria this time. Karin will still be here for another 10 days when the new girl arrives so the transition will hopefully be smooth. We never know how things will go at transition time. Nathan and Gillian and Erin have seen photos of Angelika and they like her pictures. The photos help so much because we can talk about her and where's she's from and what she likes to do and kids really enjoy that.
While we wait for Angelika's arrival we communicate via email and phone over the next few weeks to try and get to know each other better. This too helps with the transition process for everyone.
We took time to travel to Oklahoma to visit my parents in June. June in Oklahoma is swelteringly hot. The bugs like people from California and I believe they were saving their appetites for the arrival of our family in particular. Bug spray didn't even help. I guess we were just so tasty!! At any rate it was fun to spend some time with my parents and we did camp out at the lake and took a pontoon boat out for the day and played some golf so overall it was fun. On the way home going through Amarillo, Texas, we encountered a nasty thunderstorm complete with hail and tornadoes. We had to stop the car and take cover for about an hour and a half before we could move on. Karin was in awe of the drama in great west Texas panhandle. She was a great sport though and I think even though we had so much heat and bugs and storms she liked the experience of seeing a different part of the country. I told her we were going to red-neck country, and that she needed a cowboy hat, boots and big belt buckle. She did get the cowboy hat but decided to forgo the boots and belt buckle.
The hardest part about the AuPair program is that the girls go home after a year and it's so so hard to say goodbye. They literally become a family member and it feels like one of your own children are leaving home when it's time for them to go. But we get to welcome someone new to the US and hopefully we are able show them through our actions that Americans are not all bad people as it seems a lot of the world thinks these days.
I'm not sure if Nathan is quite ready for Kindergarten emotionally. Academically/intellectually, he's ready but I just have this fear that he's going to punch the first kid who tries to sit in his chair or who takes a toy or something from him. Sharing is still hard and he's not one to let things go without objection. He and Gillian still have their moments her at home so I'm just holding my breath that all will go well.
We've been watching the Olympics on TV and Nathan has been so fascinated with the swimming competitions. He's been taking swim lessons weekly for over a year now and he really enjoys it. The Olympics I think have inspired him to really focus and work on his distance and strokes. He wears himself out in the pool though after about 30 minutes because he going non stop. He swims from the edge of the pool out to his teacher or me or Cris and then swims right back. He does it over and over and over again. After about 30 minutes he's wiped out and needs to stop. Cracks me up.
Last night we watched the diving and I could see his eyes just popping in awe. He would say, "Mom did you see that! That was wild!" So cute. His eyes just sparkle.
I'll do another update soon to let everyone know how Kindergarten is going with Nathan. Keep your fingers crossed. Please keep Frances in your prayers as this is her last year of school. Please pray for her to stay focused and work towards graduation and maintaining a strong GPA for college. Last year was a tough year for her with her taking French III, Chemistry, and Algebra together along with all her Ag program work. This year she carries a lighter load which means she should have a little less pressure academically but she still needs to work on keeping her grades this year to all As and Bs in order to keep her GPA strong. Frances has never been a 4.0 student (although she is more than capable), but she's always done well overall. Your prayers for her focus and patience throughout this coming academic year will go a long way towards helping her finish her high school education on a positive note and to hopefully feel that sense of accomplishment that comes from all the hard work and dedication she has put into the last four years.
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