James: Scouts,
Baseball and Twinderella
James became a Life Scout on Wednesday! Sept 4th was our Scout Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser and dessert auction at the school.
James was one of the top ticket sellers and was awarded with Cold Stone
coupons. Tiffany Allred made a gluten free cheesecake for James to bid
on since she figured most of the desserts would contain gluten. Unfortunately we were outbid. James was disappointed. We were all very
touched when we came home and the cheesecake was sitting on our front porch.
At the fundraiser the middle school drama teacher pulled
James and I aside. She asked James why
he didn’t try out for the middle school musical. He said he was busy with other things and
that none of his friends were trying out.
She said that they needed him and that she heard from the choir teacher
that he could sing. She begged him to
come to her classroom the next day during recess. The next day, Thursday, he came in and sang
her a song. On Friday morning the cast
list was posted and he was the lead!
He plays Bob, the brother of Cinderella, in the musical Twinderella. He was not excited. He didn’t even pick up the
script that day after school. Rehearsals
are Mondays and Tuesdays. He attended
Monday and came home saying he would do it because they needed him, but he
assured us it would not be fun. We are
proud of him for doing it and Emma promised to help him memorize his lines.
James is working hard to improve his baseball skills. It is sad that thirteen is
considered “old” to be trying out a new sport.
He is on a team with 9-10 year olds but he knows it is the right
fit for his skill level. Yesterday middle school's touch rugby
season ended with a full day tournament. James played in four games and then went straight
to a two-hour baseball practice. He was
exhausted when we woke him up at 4am this morning to leave for his Interim
trip.
Lice
Tuesday, Sept 3rd John was getting Tessa out of
the bathtub and noticed a few black bugs in her hair. He called me up to see. I had never seen lice before. I thought lice were white. John looked it up on the Internet and sure
enough Tessa had lice. I checked the
other kids and Eliza had it too! I put
them back in the bathtub while John raced over to our neighbors to borrow their lice killing shampoo. We were up until
10:30pm combing through their hair. Thankfully
Emma and James were lice free. The next
morning I combed through Eliza and Tessa’s hair again picking out more nits and
eggs. They stayed home from school. We washed all their sheets in hot
water and bagged up all their stuffed animals for four weeks. I borrowed a lice-killing spray from another
friend and went to town on their mattresses and pillows and vacuumed and
cleaned. I had heard that Listerine
would work too. So I tried that on their hair and we
sat in front of the TV while I combed through their hair until
4pm. It was horrible for all of us. The girls stayed home from the Scout Fundraiser and were feeling restless. Thursday morning I took them into school to be inspected by the school nurse before going to class. Unfortunately they found one live one in
Tessa’s hair and a few dead nits in Eliza’s and sent the three of us home
again. It was school picture day, which they were sad to miss. We went home with tears in our eyes. We
washed the sheets again, used the shampoo again and sat combing through their
hair for several more hours. Friday morning
I took them to school. In our morning family prayer, Tessa prayed that
they would be completely lice free. As
we walked to the car she said, “When you pray for something after you have
done all you can do than your prayer will be answered. And we have done ALL that we can do!” The nurse spent about ten minutes each
looking through their hair and they were cleared to go to school. We all hugged and cheered. Eliza raced to class. When I took Tessa to her classroom she was
laughing and crying. It had been a stressful
2.5 days for them (it felt like a week for me)! Concordia’s lice
policy is that once you are cleared you have to go to the nurse's office
every day for two weeks for them to continue to check you. This makes them late to class and Eliza says
it is embarrassing.
Eliza’s Birthday
Eliza’s 11th birthday was Tuesday, Sept
17th. That Sunday we had the Johnsons
over for lunch after church. John
grilled chicken and Cheryl brought a chocolate trifle. Tuesday she opened up her present, a Kindle,
and I brought cupcakes into her class. During lunch several of her school friends
surprised her and decorated her locker with streamers and balloons. On Thursday we were off school/work for the
Mid-Autumn festival. It was a perfect
day for a party. Eliza had nine friends
over for lunch and a beach themed party.
She had planned all the games from ideas from her old American Girl Magazines – sponge
golf, musical towels, water balloon toss, and a few beach ball games. Cheryl offered to make her a cake for the
party. Eliza requested cupcakes with a
beach theme. They were adorable. Eliza received some great gifts: jewelry,
American Girl Doll violin and PJs, two shirts from Justice, books, and two
different jewelry-making kits.
Sunday lunch with the Johnsons
Eliza's 11th b-day breakfast
Eliza's b-day party!
