Full Steam Ahead

I should be a pro, right?  This is our 13th move in 18 years of marriage.  Craziness.  Things are falling into place, as they always do whether I worry or not.  I have my moving folder organized and my "to do" lists made.  I've scheduled utilities to be turned off and on again.  Pictures are coming down off the walls. Holes are being filled.  Bathroom are being deep cleaned.  Closets have been cleaned out and bags of stuff have been delivered to goodwill.  I have one more week till we move the stuff that can't be replaced.  We actually rented a truck this time instead of a trailer since we aren't going too far. I think that will be nice to pack rather than the neck ache of packing a trailer that's not very tall.  After that, I'll have two days to get the rest of the stuff sorted out.  We are doing a door to door move.  They load here one day and deliver there the next day.  I'll still have to come back to Woodbridge one more time to do a final clean and turn the house back over to the landlord.  I'm ready to have this behind us and get settled in our new house.

I have lots of pictures to upload:  last day of school, Allie's graduation, dance recital.  I'll try to get it done next week before I pack my camera ;).  That last week of school was crazy with normal stuff plus all the extras.  This week has been much calmer.  I've worked around the house and made phone calls in the mornings and taken the kids to the pool in the afternoons.

The kids finished out the year pretty well.  We kind of fizzled out with school after Jaelyn took her SAT-10 because the other kids were playing too.  Her last two weeks, we finished up science, she had a year end review paper to write and we played a lot of boggle for spelling.  Her afternoons were spent sewing.  She ended up with a A/B average in all of her subjects.  Allie ended with Bs and a few As scattered in.  Caden ended up with all As and 1 B.  Caden did really well on his SOLs (what VA calls it's standardized test).  Allie did okay in math, but failed reading scoring in the 23rd percentile, I think.  It's confusing because she got an A in reading on her report card and was marked as "above grade level."  She's been all over the place with math and reading this year.  Next year is going to be a lot of hard work, but I'm looking forward to getting a handle on her abilities.  I don't think her grades or testing reflect her true abilities (whether higher or lower, I don't really know).  I need to get busy and decide what curriculum I want.  It was such a struggle last year.  After a year, you'd think I'd know exactly what I want to do, but I don't.  Well, I do for reading, math, spelling, and science.  I have no clue for social studies and language arts.  I'm thinking of doing a trip around the world for social studies.  Maybe study each continent for  5 weeks???  I tried 3 different things for language arts and wasn't happy with any.

Dan is days away from finishing his thesis.  I'm so excited for the day he calls and says "it's done!"  It's been a long, hard year, but we've survived.  I don't even think anyone will need therapy after the year (hee hee).

I guess that's about it.  It's lunch time and then we are heading to the cheap theater to see the Muppets.  :)