A Simple, but Very Enjoyable Weekend

Samuel flew to Denver from Houston all by himself on Friday.  It's a long story including the ex-husband planning a vacation the week before Samuel starts year-round school (claiming that I didn't tell him this was happening, whatever).  I am very proud of Samuel.  He was pretty nervous about it because the other times he has flown he has had Solomon and Miriam with him.  In addition to that experience, the flight was more than twice as long as the flight from Albuquerque to Denver is aaaaand  his flight was delayed by almost an hour aaaaand  even after his flight "landed" at DIA the plane had to sit on the tarmac for another 45 minutes while the previous plane left its arrival gate.  All of this while he had an enormous stomach ache from eating a crap load of junk food before and during his flight.

Yes, Samuel starts school tomorrow.  You may remember my being flabbergasted when we moved here that the elementary school had not only a 2-week spring break (what, not just a week?!) but also a 2-week fall break (sweet!).  There were also several 4-day weekends incorporated into the calendar.  All of this left that school with just a 2-month summer break.  This is called a 'Transitional Calendar' and it's meant to prepare both students and their parents for the inevitability of that school becoming a year-round school.  This would happen once the population in that region reaches a point where the school simply cannot accommodate all of the students who need to attend at once.  We were notified over a year ago that this coming school year would be year-round and here we are.

It's not such a bad thing, this year-round business.

1)  Our family only has to do it for one year as Samuel is entering the 5th grade and next year he'll attend the middle school which can accommodate more students and operates on a traditional 9-month calendar.

2)  Samuel will get more one-on-one time with either myself or the ex-husband has he has periodic 3-week breaks interspersing his 9-week school attendance periods.  I think we'll all benefit from this.

3)   Samuel's ADHD means that his attending school OR  having too long a break from school translates to extreme boredom and frustration for him, as well as increased frustration for me as we attempt to focus on school work and homework.

Anyway, Samuel is back with me while the other two are in Albuquerque/Houston/in transit to ABQ from Houston/wherever.

Samuel and I have had a fabulous weekend.  We've gotten caught up on snuggling that we missed for a few weeks -- and boy, let me tell you -- this boy needs his snuggles!  (Truth be told, so do I.)  We went with Lance to my co-worker's house yesterday morning to help her with some yardwork and we made some money.  We spent the rest of yesterday resting, eating and refueling after that arduous morning.

This morning we sorted through leftover and still-usable-school supplies to determine what is still needed for school tomorrow.  Then we went shopping for the remainder and packed up that backpack you can see here.  This will be Samuel's 4th year still using that same backpack.  I told him we'll see about buying a new one for middle school next year.  (I cannot believe he's going to middle school in a year!)

 

We've played lots of video games, both separately and together.  Here he is embarking on a new level of Fancy Pants.  Occasionally he asks for my help on something but, let's face it -- a gamer I am not.  More often than not he assigns me to "stand right here, swing your sword and just kill that one spider while I jump on this wall, rappel up to the next level, kill the Rat King and all the other spiders, collect all the stars and advance to the next level."  Ha ha ha!

I'm really only good at Sims 3. I am currently waiting for him to finish up on Fancy Pants so I can get back to my new Sims 3 character and her ambition to become a world-famous international spy.

He almost always stands like this while playing video games.