School Supplies

Now I know that most of you still have many weeks before your little ones go back to school.  I, on the other hand, have only a few more days.  The school district that we moved into has a shorter summer.  The kids go to school for 9 weeks at a time.  Then they have a two week vacation.  So this year, they will have a fall break as well as a spring break.  Both TWO weeks long.  Long enough to get some real vacationing in as a family, we hope!  
So the school gives me a list for my third grader.  This is after our whole school fiasco that is too long to get into.  Let's just say that thanks to Mrs. Holstein and her connections here, it has been taken care off and he is officially enrolled in the proper school.  Phew!  It was a long ordeal.  But, I digress...
The school gives me a list of school supplies.  Not a big deal.  We go through this every year.  Last year we even got together 5 extra backpacks for the most financially challenged schools in our area.  So, I am thinking okay, let's get this knocked out before everyone else does as well and you can't find the supplies.  Been there, done that!  
We go to Target, right down the street.  Super Target by the way!  Anyway, we are going through the long list one by one.  The kids and I have learned some lessons from this annual shopping trip.  First is that when the list says "Elmer's Glue", they really mean Elmer's!  You can not by Rose's or the store brand.  The teachers will send it back and tell you to buy the correct item.  
Second, when the list says 4.75 oz bottle, that is exactly what they want.  Never mind the fact that they don't sell a 4.75 oz bottle of glue, it is a 5 oz bottle even through their website.  Yes, I have been told that I bought the wrong size glue before!  She really was a nice teacher.  Really!  
The big thing that really gets to me is this.  Why does a child need two pencil sharpeners, two scissors, and two boxes of crayons?  Now I can understand if they tell you that they need one right now and then another half way through school.  Just to give you a warning so that you can buy them when the prices are the best.  That would make sense.  Send the extra supplies in after Christmas break.  No problem.  Just what exactly do they do with the extra supplies?  The kid can't use two pairs of scissors at once, right?  I guess I never tried that before.  Hmmm.  An experiment to try later.
Today I was going over just what all my little one needs on the first day of school.  It filled three Target bags.  Very heavy Target bags!  I was so amazed at what all they "require" for just him!  I should add up how much it all costs.  Problem is that I had to go to three different stores to find it all.  When you need a certain kind of folder in five different specific colors, it's a little hard to find them all at one place!  
So here are the pictures of just what one third graders needs.

So now the real fun starts.  How is getting all of this to school on the first day?  And what does the older child need for school?  He gets his lists from all of his teachers on his first day of school.  Off to do this all again!  Ugh!

Moving to El Paso

It has been a long summer already!  Two moves in a year is hard on all of us.  The movers came to Harker Heights one year and two days after they came to deliver our household goods.  We still had boxes in the guest room that never got unpacked.  I guess in the back of my mind, I knew that we would only be there for a year.  With the military, you never know what to expect!

So we moved on to El Paso.  We are an AF Squadron here on an Army base.  Thank goodness for great friends back at Ft Hood to explain to me how this "post" thing works.  There are many differences on how things run on an Army post versus an AF base!  Too many to count or even explain!  

Dawn gave me a great reference book to go by.  I am sure I will need it!  I am already wondering what I am doing!

So we said goodbye to our friends, some of who moved along before we did, and packed up.  It took a couple of days to get from the middle of Texas to the end of it.  Anyone who has driven through Texas will understand the drive.  Ugh!  We knew to stop for the night!  

We stopped at the same hotel that we did when moving to Ft Hood.  In case you didn't hear, we had some excitement last year there.  Both of our cars were totaled with hail damage.  What a fun move that was!  We decided to risk it and try again.

I am happy to report that there was no real damage this time around!  Yes, we had a lot of furniture with damage.  Like my hall tree from England that I am upset about.  But, there is nothing to do but try and get it fixed.  Maybe next time will be the first time that they DON'T damage the poor thing!  Not holding my breath though.  Just one more thing on my to do list is reporting all of the damage and getting it repaired.  

We finally moved into the house after many delays.  Here is what it looked like when we were house hunting.

The grass and most of the bushes died with no water after the renters moved out.  We are bringing it all back to life slowly but surely.  There is a bird feeder in the back yard.  We now have the most birds in the neighborhood.  They ate a very large bag of bird food in a matter of days.  There were over thirty birds when I looked out my kitchen window yesterday!  Only a few are left now that they ate the whole bag.  I guess that is something I need to stock up on now.  

The house is mostly unpacked.  More so than our last house ever was.  It is still a work in progress though.  We will see if it gets completely unpacked before we move again.  Hopefully!  Speaking of which, I need to go unpack a few boxes today...