It has been a while since I've made time to update the blog. What a flake! We went on that awesome family road trip this summer and it seems like we've been trying to catch up with some free time ever since we came home!
Valerie and I attended the California State Fair in Sacramento again. She showed sheep, ate potato tornadoes and got mobbed at the petting zoo. It was awesome.
We came home for a few days and packed and took off with the rest of the family for a little R&R in San Clemente with our friends. Love the beach time! Thanks, Kelley & Steve!
Michael got to jam with Bogie & some friends.
Kelley is my Zumba buddy! I will bring my shoes next time!
Once we got home from that adventure, it has been non-stop dentist, hair cuts, back to school shopping, orthodontist, school meetings and poultry herding. All this kept us so busy, but slightly mundane and not really noteworthy. Well, I would note that Amira's haircut looked fantastic.
Michael and I had decided that we were not going to raise any chickens or turkeys this year. We were just going to stick with our flock of layers and then start over next year. Well, that was all well and good until the chickens decided it was too hot and they were too old to lay.
And then the fantastic Mr. Fox showed up and started picking off the hens that were actually productive. We were a little resentful that we had to buy eggs from the store. So we decided to pick up a few layers. And since we had layers, we decided to try and get our hands on a couple of turkeys. And, what the heck, since we had all that other poultry, let's just add a bunch of meat birds too. We went from "let's not not raise any poultry this fall" to "Hey! Let's get a bunch of everything!" You can see below two little turkeys. They are both toms. One is giving us the fan already. Cute!
Well, now the kids are all back at school and assorted activities. Amira is in her last year of elementary school. She will go off to junior high next year. Can you believe it? She is still taking riding lessons one day a week after school.
Rex is now a sophomore. He is still taking engineering, French and English. This year he is also taking world history, sculpture, Algebra II and independent study P.E. (That means he has to write paper for P.E. and show up at 7am once a week to run the equivalent of a mile). He is none too happy about that. His main activity outside of school is paintball. He is very good at it and is on a team now. He spends most weekends at the paintball park.
Valerie just began her freshman year "home schooling". The good news is that most of her classes are at the school. She is taking Math I, Health, Intro to Ag (science), American Sign Language I and Computer Literacy at the school. She has independent study P.E. and English. She is also taking orchestra out at Butte College again (this time earning high school and college credits simultaneously) and continuing with her piano and cello lessons. She is also in FFA this year (instead of 4-H). This may work out really well for her. She is the kid with too many activities. But, the plus side is that if you home school, you credit for all these activities you are doing anyway instead of just trying to squeeze them in after school. She loves her sign language class and her Ag class. The sign language program is great. By the third year the students get to work in a local school for the deaf and hard of hearing and can earn a certificate as a translator. That's a marketable skill! And this counts as her foreign language for college. Bonus.
