Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Summer Comes To A Screeching Halt


I was raised in the land of Southern California. Now, I know that plenty of you out there despise Southern Cal, but it has many, many fine points. Moderate temperatures year round, an ocean breeze at 5:00 pm sharp, plenty of great shopping, entertainment, and restaurants, and beautiful beaches. One thing that it offered that I failed to fully appreciate as a child was that summer doesn't end there until Labor Day. We always went back to school somewhere between September 4th and the 9th--at least a few days after the holiday that is supposed to signal summer's end.
We clearly were not considering ideal school schedules (or ideal weather patterns and climates) when we decided to move further north. Here, school starts in the middle of August, when we should still be relishing in family vacations, swimming pools, homemade ice cream, etc. In fact, I always thought that those "dog days of summer" came in August. So why in the name of everything good would they send kids back to school? It was 98 degrees today (those of you in Phoenix are jealous, I know) and all the moms were completely sweaty (not just lightly perspiring) when we picked up the kidlets after school. Yikes! And there was no way that I was sending them in anything but summer clothes--all those adorable fall styles with "back to school" written all over them won't be pulled out for ages. No sirree, my boys started school today in cargo shorts and short sleeved shirts, with a cold water bottle in their backpacks. Aren't they cute?
Henry started kindergarten today, something that has caused me great anguish all summer, wondering if he's mature enough, if he knows his letters well enough, if he'll suck his thumb in class! He did marvelously well and thankfully didn't notice my eyes welling up when we said goodbye. I love his teacher, Mrs. R and I can tell that she will be great for him. And because Heavenly Father knew that he can be a bit on the shy side when he's not around people he knows, He made sure that Henry had four other kids in his kindergarten class that he already knew from church or preschool. Here he sat with three of them while we waited for the class to open: I already adore Kimball's teacher, Mrs. C; after meeting her yesterday for a preview of the classroom with Kimball, I can already tell that she is a dream teacher for a kid with special needs. She has already thought of lots of things to help him succeed including placement of his desk, hand fidgets, a book nook for breaks from the stimuli of the class, and room to move around. I fully expect Kimball to thrive in her class. Yeah! We have been so blessed with his teachers.
At 3:15 I picked up my boys, who were so excited to tell me all about their day. We came home for brownies and cold milk and to relax. Bummer that by tomorrow, they'll probably have homework--since it'll only be August 22nd, it feels like we should be headed to the lake or bumming around the pool, still being too lax about bed time and housework. Oh well. They don't realize that they've been cheated out of two and a half weeks of summer.
At least I'll have a few hours every day when they are at school and my other two are asleep. That'll leave more time for blogging!
Alli & I headed back to school (AFTER LABOR DAY) in 1980 (1st grade and 2nd grade, respectively.)

11 comments:

McD said...

Michal,

I love your blog. I too think school starts to early. It is 100 degrees every dayt this week (once you add the humidity) I think the saddest part is the fact that it is too hot for the classes to go out and play for recess. I could not imagine not playing for recess. I am sure the teachers might agree, except for wet dog smell that would come from playing)

I wonder how in the world you could ever have a had a child that is shy?

I am glad to hear Kimball has a great teacher. I was looking at a picture of Steven Hawkins yesterday, it was just a headshot and I thought he looked a lot like Kimball. (That could be a good sign, guys kinda smart)

The boys look great.

Anonymous said...

I think the first day of school is a hard one... Your so happy to have some free time but it really pulls on those heart strings when you relize how big the are getting... I'm just thankful that all our boys had a great day...

When I was standing at the Kindergarden room I thought this is where our friendship began 2 years ago.. Funny how time flys..I'm just happy to have a great friend to share it with..
Mandy

Michal said...

mandy,
ok, now YOU'RE making me misty. knock it off!
i'm so glad that kindergarten brought us together--it's one of the few down sides that i'm seeing these days against home schooling. if i home schooled from the beginning, i'd probably never have met you. i hate the idea of missing out on a friendship.
glad our 2nd sons can be together this year again. at least we have that, even if #1s didn't get to be in the same class.

Rebecca said...

Congrats on getting back to school. It is one of my favorite times as I loved going to school and get just as excited as my kids go back to school.
We are in the Phoenix area and it's only 102 degrees here. Honestly, it feels nicer to me than Cali's 90+ degree weather. It's not as humid. Doesn't bother me one bit. Noah will start 1st grade next Monday. I don't know why we go back in August because I, like you, grew up in So. Cal. and we always started the Thurs. after Labor day. But, we do get the entire month of June off and that's a good time to visit in CA and go to amusement parks when CA are still in school.
Good luck with all the homework!

Deborah Gamble said...

Michal,

Thanks for the Phoenix link! Great back-to-school pic too. You adn your sis were fashion queens!

Michal said...

debbie,
not everyone can be as fashion forward as we. don't you wish you had some knee socks like those? what cracks me up is that my skirt was totally on crooked. but i'm sure that i felt positively be-yoo-ti-ful.

Michal said...

rebecca,
nothing you could say would convince me that the weather in phoenix is nice unless it's february. sorry!

Michal said...

McD,
Steven Hawking? I'll admit I had to google him and if we are talking about the same guy he is obviously brilliant but NOT so easy on the eyes. Whaddryou trying to say about my son?

Rebecca said...

Oh...I'm not claiming that AZ weather is nicer than CA. I think we'd all know who would win that contest. I'm just saying that hot is hot and when you guys are 98 and we're 102, there isn't much difference in the hotness...we just lack the humidity which makes it a bit more tolerable and less sweaty. If I could have lived all my days in So. Cal. I definitely would have...unfortunately everyone else wants to do the same and not too many of us stay at home moms can afford the housing.

Michal said...

rebecca,
ok, i'll give you that. and 102 isn't unheard of here--it's when you guys get up into the 115s and 120s that i think i'd rather live in just about anywhere than phoenix. at least you have central air, right?
here's to people brave enough to leave the paradise of southern cal if it means having a home and staying home with your kids!

Rebecca said...

Absolutely, I don't think I would have moved here without central air. It keeps the house at 78 degrees all day and night. In fact, my mom said her eletrical bill was about $250 in southern ca last month and mine was only $230...so we can't complain. We only have one air conditioner ...the bigger two story homes have 2 units and their bills are much higher. One reason we only got a single story with one unit. For June and July our electrical ran $130 and $150...so it was August that went high. We haven't gotten over 111 degrees the entire summer so far and it was only a couple of days that were that high. It's really not as bad as I imagined it would be and you get acclimated pretty quickly. We're lucky we haven't seen 120 this summer...I'm sure we will eventually!