Kittens are 3 weeks old!

We might just have to keep this one in the middle. She's really curious and active and sweet. Loves to be petted on her belly. Too cute!

Kittens are 1 week old!

Sarah's first day of 7th grade

Sarah reluctantly started school this week. She's in 7th grade at Pueblo Middle School. Besides all the normal classes, she's got Art and Computers as her electives this year. Erik won't be with her at school anymore, so she had some anxiety over that, but seemed to do okay riding the bus alone again. I wait to go to work until after the bus comes for her, and then she gets home just a little before I do around 3:45 p.m., and after Erik is already home. So that works out well. She's got some friends in all her classes, so she's happy about that. But she says school is still boring!

Erik started high school!

Can you believe Erik started high school this week! He's at Corona Del Sol, one of the top schools in the state. There are about 2,600 students that go there. School starts at 7:25 a.m., so I've been driving him and his friend in the mornings, and the friend's mom picks them up and brings Erik home at 2:15 p.m. since I'm still at work then. His schedule is:
1st period - religious training at our church
2nd period - Honors Geometry
3rd period - Freshman PE
4th period - Honors Chemistry
5th period - Lunch
6th period - Freshman English
7th period - Drafting Technology (CAD)
He had a long week and is feeling the drain of what it's going to be like in high school with tough classes and lots of homework! Tonight they had the Freshman dance, and tomorrow is the atheletic meeting. Since he's been doing jiujitsu for two years, he's going to try out for the wrestling team. The team won State this past year, but the coach retired, and so a whole new coach is starting this year. The new coach was a Bronze medal winner in the 84 Olympics, so that's kind of exciting to hear. We'll meet him tomorrow and find out all the details.

Sedona

We decided to spend the last day before school starts up in the mountains to get out of the heat. We drove up to Sedona, which is known for its art galleries, and beautiful scenery of red rock and mountains. We could actually enjoy being ouside without dying of heatstroke!

The Kittens are Here!

The kittens are here! The stray cat that I rescued from ASU's parking lot at work didn't JUST have a litter like we thought - she was getting READY to have a litter! She was so skinny when we found her, we couldn't tell, but quickly her belly got big and eventually it dawned on us that it was just the food she was eating. We could feel the babies moving so then knew for sure she was expecting. There were four kittens but one didn't make it. We were gone all day, but checked on her when we got home and sure enough there she was with the babies. She even gave birth in the box we put under our bed, as that seemed to be her favorite spot to hide, so that was so thoughtful of her to not mess up the carpet. Anybody thinking of getting a kitten for Christmas - we have three available!

Girls Church Camp

I'm so thankful for the women and girls at church who love Sarah even though she never returns the feeling. When a girl turns 12, she moves up into the Young Women's program, and can go to summer camp for a week each year, but Sarah refused to go this, her first year. But they didn't forget about her. They made her one of all the things that Sarah would have made had she gone at camp. They made her (from left to right) a backpack and filled it full of snacks and water bottles; a name plate for her bunk (that I'm going to put on her bedroom door); handmade pajamas; a woven basket full of goodies for pampering; a journal; and a personalized face mask (which was for use in cleaning the bathrooms at camp). The theme for camp was from Wicked and so the monkeys have some connection to that. And the little red ruby slipper pin next to the monkey is to remind them that "there's no place like home." Meaning, that they should look forward to going back to both their earthly home and their spirtual home in Heaven. I'm so grateful for the love and encouragement our church family gives to us!