updates

Here we are. It's September 1st.
I am aching for fall. I want to put away the summer clothes, send the boys to school and get a job.
Yes, I've brought my thinking around from "thinking about a job" to "getting a job," and this is the month to do it. I await news from earlier interviews and invite you to wring your hands with me.

Youngest attended an orientation meeting and was given his locker assignment, schedule and a dozen donuts. They don't give donuts to all incoming freshmen - he won them in a contest. His notebooks are ready and he seems mildly excited about the new school. I'm sure he'd be more excited but he's 14.

Middle has his schedule too. I'm not sure why he'd even bother going in on "E" days as he has three classes and four periods off, but he's not the type to cut class so I'm not worried about it.
He's been working on the essays required for his college application, and is on his second week of a dairy free diet (no small feat in my house) to help his insides heal from what may have been Salmonella. Remember that fish tank? It was actually an iguana tank and Middle cleaned it and has been quite unwell. He appears to be on the mend.

K is doing a small editing job which we hope signifies the end of a long dry summer. He dug the hole I mentioned last week, on the side of our house, in an attempt to keep his office floor from getting wet during monsoon season. He dug down about eight feet in a trench three feet wide and tarred the foundation which was cracked. Of course, the presence of this hole inspired a film. Middle and Youngest spent a couple of hours in the dark, in the hole, shooting.
It's cute to watch them work together, those two. Middle will come running out of his room with light sabers or odd hats or some other interesting props - he'll shout for Youngest, they'll discuss the plot and costumes and then rush off gathering extension cords and lights and all manner of strange household items.

I made them go food shopping with me the other day. I wanted Middle to choose some milk-free things that he might find appealing and Youngest needed hair gel. They had a good time wandering the aisles, Middle spent a lot of time reading ingredients (milk is in a lot of things!) and were delighted to see an aisle of small toys. They fell in love with and purchased "army" knives. Big plastic things with a toy compass, sheath and little cardboard map. They spent a couple of hours pulling fake knife pranks on each other and showed up at dinner with them clenched in their teeth.
Isn't there something poetic I could say here, about clenching a knife in my teeth? You know, to wrap things up?
No?
Well, that's that then.