I'm here, and still alive! It's been a long time since I've written a family letter. I'm trying hard not to let the computer suck away my time, especially at night. Sometimes I wish I could just turn it off entirely and go back to the pre-internet days of no email, no ebay, no youtube, no facebook, no blogs, no online games... But then I log on and get to read letters from my family and see pictures of my nieces and nephews and I'm not sure I would give those up. I guess it's a good thing I have no choice in this matter.
I spent most of the day in San Marcos today, taking Brigham to the Texas State Strings Camp down at Texas State University. He will be there for a week of intensive rehearsals, practices, master classes, sectionals, and private lessons. This is the first time I have ever had a child away from me for more than a couple of nights away from family. It is also the very first time in Brigham's life that he will spend a night away from his brothers.
I have had such mixed feelings about sending my children away to sleep-away camps. But, I think this will be a good one. I wonder if the orchestra world for young people has changed all that much from when I was a kid? It seems like maybe not as much as the rest of society. In any case, my Brigham has a good head on his shoulders, and he can handle himself well in any situation.
But it was sure a strange feeling to watch my little boy walking off alone into the dorm, turning back to wave at me every 10 feet or so, and stopping to blow me kisses before going in through the front doors, and then to drive away without him. Maybe it would seem less strange for me if I were used to seeing him off to school every day? Maybe not. But I am used to always knowing exactly what he is doing every minute of the day, and now for this week, I won't. He did call me tonight just before bed to check in. My boys are not that used to phone conversations. I need to teach them some phone etiquette. He basically had a few things to say to me, and then it was just, "Bye!" :-)
Anyway, it was a long day for him. We got there at 9:30, stood in line for 45 minutes to check in, went to sign in for auditions, left to check into his dorm room (which ended up being on the 2nd floor of a non-ADA compliant building, so I couldn't go up and get his bed made up and his room set up with him :-(. Then back to the music building on the other end of campus where we waited for THREE HOURS for his audition. Seriously, they need to streamline that process. But eventually he got that finished, then we ate a hurried, very late lunch in the car an I dropped him off at the dorm and drove home by myself!
The past two weeks of summer have gone by very fast. Last week Mosey had cub scout day camp and came home exhausted every afternoon. I think next year a 3-day day camp will be plenty for him. He had a good time, though, canoeing and swimming and bb-gun-ing, and archery and all the fun scouting stuff they do there. Brigham and Joseph went to a tennis camp for an hour and a half on Mon., Wed., and Fri. I tried to enforce some school work/practicing, but I'm trying to be laid-back about it this summer. They have 2 hours of homework/practicing that they need to do in order to get 2 hours of screen time (only 1 hour of gaming/TV/movie watching). For a few days I tried to get them to do all 2 hours before they got any computer time, but I think it's going to work better to do a pay-for-play kind of thing. Of course, it's not working that great for one of my boys who is not as motivated by screen time-- Brigham. He spent most of the day reading, reading, and reading. It's hard to get too upset with that, however. That was my favorite summertime activity, too. He is on a quest to read the whole Book of Mormon in a week. He got all the way through Mosiah in 2 days, so I think he can do it. We're not counting this week of music, camp, though.
We've spent a fair amount of time in our pool. I really love our pool. I got sunburned on my first day of summer vacation-- the first sunburn I've had in more than 5 years! I haven't been able to spend enough time out in the sun to get sunburned until we've had this pool. The boys have been out swimming almost every day.
The twins also baby-sat for 3 little kids at our house for several hours on Thursday while their dad went to the hospital to get his wife and baby girl after their discharge. This is the girl I visit teach with-- she usually leaves her kids with the boys while we go visiting teaching, so the boys have some experience. It was fun to see my big boys playing Battleship, and "Zombies" and sword-fighting with these little ones. They'll make good babysitters in a year or so.
I've also spent a lot of time researching curriculum for next year. I've liked Sonlight the past two years, but now that the twins will be in 7th grade, I feel like we need to up the rigor a little bit, so I may do a blend of Sonlight and Well Trained Mind. It's so hard to decide! I know I always overestimate what is really reasonable to expect from my kids, so I'm trying to stay realistic. I have begun my book-purchase list, and it's already ridiculously long. I'm going to need a new book case. :-)
It looks like my Houston appointments won't be until August. I'm kind of relieved, because I can push it further away and not stress so much about it now, and also I will have more of an uninterrupted stretch of vacation time, but it also would have been nice to have it all done with before the family reunion. Oh, well. It is the last time I'll have to go out there for evaluation, and that is a huge relief, anyway.
Ben is staying busy at work and with Bishopric stuff. He spent ALL day yesterday finishing our taxes which we deferred back in April. We are ending up having to send a pretty hefty chunk of change to the IRS. I guess it's good to be in an income bracket in which we are heavily taxed, but man, is it ever painful to write that check. Poof. I have no confidence that this money will be used to any productive purpose at all. He did manage, after a good bit of finagling, to reduce what we owed by a few thousand dollars, so I guess his time yesterday was well-spent, but it was not a fun day for him. We went to see Man of Steel in the evening as a sort of reward for him. If you go see that movie, keep track of how many Christ-references you see. I wish I had told my boys to do this before we saw the movie! Afterward we talked about it, and I was able to point out quite a few references that they remembered, but it would have probably made the movie a more meaningful experience if they had been watching for it in the first place. Anyway, we did enjoy the movie. Afterward we were walking to our car and Ben discovered he didn't have his wallet. He happened to have my debit card, plus a few extra corporate cards he generally doesn't keep in his wallet, plus more cash than he usually carries, in addition to all the other stuff-- insurance cards, drivers license, etc.. He couldn't find it for quite some time. In fact, he had just decided to give up and leave the theater and accept that someone had taken it, when he happened to see the bare edge of it wedged under one of the arm-rests. The boys and I had said a prayer in the car that he would find it, and so it was very gratifying when he came out with it in hand. I have to say some of my most consistently-answered prayers have been for help in finding important missing items. I guess that is one way in which God doesn't mind intervening so much. :-)
OK, it is time for me to head off to bed. I hope everyone has a great week. I love you!
Love,
Gabrielle
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