I just realized that I haven't blogged at all this summer. This summer has been absolutely amazing! It's the first time in our 11 years together that we didn't have to work over the summer! When you are a youth pastor, summer is your big season...kids are out of school...there are trips, programming, mid-week stuff that doesn't normally happen during the busy-ness of a school year.
When you are a teacher instead of a youth pastor life is a whole new experience! All year long I had built in vacations, normal weekends and months off over summer break...and the best part of it all is all four of the kids had the same exact schedule!!!!
Rick did sign on to teach summer school, the extra cash was a huge bounus, especially with moving and needing to purchace bunk beds, and a few other things to make our new place work for us! Other than that, we haven't worked at all! :) Breaks are so nice!
We are coming up on one more week of summer for Rick and I, and two for the kids (we have a teacher week to head back to!) This 1st summer in Cayman has been lots of fun!
We moved! Our new place is great. It's about 1/2 the size of our 1st house here...but we realized that we weren't using much of the space of the other place. It was HUGE... the kids had plenty of room to play...but the rent and the utilities and the distance to work, town, friends and the beach was putting an undo strain on our budget! The last day of school we started looking for a new place as close to the school as possible!
What we found is perfect...it is literally right across the street from the enterance to the school...we could walk if we really wanted to (and I am sure we will!) It is two bedrooms, each room has it's own full bathroom! It is two floors (the kids LOVE having an upstairs, not sure why, but they do!) The best part, is we have a POOL!!!! We are in a #7 in a row of 9 townhouses... we also have a full size USA washer/dryer....which is a big switch from what we had before! Our kids are now all fishes, as they live in the pool!
Right next door, our neighbors are also a Triple C family...Toby's friend Daniel and Noah's classmate Simba are over all the time. It is fun having friends so close! It is also nice to live nearer to other friends (The Benders!) and to all the stores we frequent weekly!
We had our first visitors too!! Grandpa and Jo came for a glorious week!!! We transformed the kids room into a guest room (our go go gadget room!) and we had fun visiting beaches, our pool, and even exlporing the reefs of George Town on the glass bottom boat! A week was too short, but we hope to have them back soon (don't want those passports to go to waste :)
Here is an update for each person!
Noah: Will start grade 3 this year! We stopped by the school to show Grandpa and Jo and he found his desk with his name on it ready to go! He is our builder and engineer boy. He loves to build, construct and create. His newest thing is collecting sea glass (glass from broken bottles on the ocean floor) and making sea glass pictures. He sold me one of a palm tree that is quite amazing! Noah is almost 5 feet tall...and we have the same size feet (he's in a mens 6!) At the beginning of summer Noah also had a lead in the church muscial "Amazing Grace Race" he was the Reporter/narrator. He did a great job (four shows!) And they were even broadcast on TV!
Keighley: She will be in grade 2 this year!!!! She is excited to move "upstairs" to morning care. Her goal is to make "Most Outstanding Student" this year. She missed it by one point last year! She is almost toothless...loosing or about to loose many teeth! She is getting taller...she loves to read, and is very artistic! She is constantily drawing, painting, coloring, and her newest thing is paper folding! She keeps us busy..and loves to sit and chat!
Isaac: He starts Kinder this year and is most excited to wear the real uniform (Prek just wore PE uniforms) He is excited to have his own belt!! He is our best swimmer...if the kids are trying out a new skill they only get confidence if Isaac has done it first... this was true for jumping the "Cliffs" at Smith cove, for doing flips into the pool, for being thrown by daddy in the ocean! If Isaac can do it, so can they!
Toby: Just turned FOUR!!!!! He will be in PreK this year (meaning all Grangers will be in one builiding!!!) The week of his birthday he began jumping and swimming independantly in the pool! He also will swim out to us in "deep" (5ft) water at the beach. He LOVES Thomas and is the best track builder we have had! Most mornings we are greeted with a HUGE track built all over the living room!
Rick: As usual Rick is doing great and forever looking for a fun hobby or project to do. Since moving he's put painting on hold... but has done a lot of reading this summer... :) He taught 8th grade US history for summer school and had fun with it! He found out last week that he is moving from 6th grade to 7th grade Science this next year! He's excited for the switch.
Me: After being sick for the last 2 weeks I finally went to the doctor...now I am feeling tons better... while there I learned that I really need to drop some weight!! I hate diets and I really don't like exercising at all!! But I am committed to dropping the pounds! So I began the South Beach diet this week. So far so good! Like I said I hate diets...so please pray for me as I continue on this path.
I also have a new schedule for the school year, one that I am really excited about! I get to teach 6th-12th Grade Bible!!! I am excited to have all the kids!
Summer has been a great time for all of us! The kids are ready to go back to school... and Rick and I are also gearing up for another year! I will miss sleeping in, and having a free time to do whatever we want! So we will soak in the last days of summer and then move our beach time back to Fridays!
We welcome all vistors!!! We'd love to see you... we have two weeks off at Christmas/New years, and two weeks off in April!!!! If you want to see the island and not us...feel free to crash at our place anytime throughout the year!!!
Check out my "Summer in Cayman" album on Facebook to see pictures! :)
Great to catch-up on your blog... if not for Facebook I would have been truly worried what happened to you!
Posted by: Charles | August 16, 2011 at 11:17 AM