End of Summer/Beginning of School

We finished up our summer break with a quick trip to Pennsylvania. After an exhaustive search of probably 30 car lots here in WV and OH for a car to replace our Camry I did what any daughter of a mechanic would do. I called my dad! 

Jeremy had been looking online in western PA and found one. I called my dad late one Sunday night and pathetically begged asked if he would go to a nearby lot and look at a car that Jeremy found on the website. Not surprisingly, my parents dropped any plans they had for Monday morning and went car shopping. He drove these cars on some of the toughest hills in western PA (the traffic light on the hill in Apollo). 

They put money down on a car for us and we finally felt good about it! But we had to manage with one car for a few days. That was tricky as we had a couple of appointments with the kids. We needed that car! 

Dad refused to allow us to come home without changing the timing belt, thermostat, and water pump. We are now the owners of a 2004 Hyundai Elantra.

Mariah woke up with a slight fever. For her that always means stress dosing her hydrocortisone every three hours. While mom and I took Ben and Mariah to Pittsburgh, Jeremy bought the car and began helping my dad work. Dad's garage is not open to the public yet but again.....I pulled a few strings. Basically, I was born into this family and the rest is history!

Mariah's fever got worse as the day progressed. After her nap she felt very warm to me. Grandma took her temperature and it read 103.2. She was miserable.

Jeremy's parents take our family to Kennywood every year as a treat. We had planned on all of us going however, Mariah changed those plans. She only wanted mama. I was torn. I wanted to watch Selah at her first American amusement park but I also knew I needed to be with my sick little one. She had gone so long without having a mama. My place was at my parents' home with her.

Soon she was bouncing back and happy. Ibuprofen is a wonderful thing!

The rest of my family had a blast at Kennywood! Grandma and Pap are no exception to that fun. The meteorologists were calling for high winds and rain that day but it turned out beautiful! 

They were excited to ride the water rides. I prefer to stay dry! Evidently Grandma and Pap loved getting wet too!

Can you see how they are literally dripping wet? 

Maybe this is why.......

 Ben got it too thanks to the Raging Rapids.

Grandma too! Well, except for her hair.

First coaster with her big brother, The Racer. Although the next ride she asked if she could ride with a "big person".

Daddy and his big girls.

Dad, Ben, Micah, and Kyle on the Jack Rabbit. This is one of my favorites!

That marked the end of our summer. 

I needed to get home and get ready for my first day of school with the kids. I was not prepared AT ALL!!!!!

I had to get busy cleaning up from last year. Yep! I still had not packed everything away yet. I somehow managed to get the room pulled together. This year I added a computer center in the back of the room.

Don't be too impressed with this. I plan to write a post about how we homeschool. I promise I am not that impressive as a teacher. Ben's desk will never be that neat EVER again! EVER!

Front row with the pink chair is Selah, Ben, and Mariah with the small wooden desk. Back row from the bookcases is Kyle (red organizer), Micah (green organizer) and Rebecca (pink organizer).

They were met with my typical "Welcome" message.

And I snapped a photo once they were at their desks.

For our first day we did a little bit of work and then had lunch at Wendy's in an attempt to start out slowly and happily!

Added this one for good measure. I think Ben looks so cute here. Ignore the laundry baskets behind him. At least they were empty, right?

This past Friday was Mariah's first day of speech this school year. Once again we have a sweet SLP. Ironically, she also lives in our neighborhood. How neat that Mariah's two speech therapists live in our small neighborhood of 102 houses!