Turtle Soup

Grandma H. (Matt's Grandma) gave the kids (my kids and five of the cousins) all turtles today. The kids are thrilled. The parents.... depends on which one you are talking about. Most of us don't mind. Matt is slightly annoyed. We had told the kids no more pets. I like turtles though, and have wanted another one for a long time. Matt keeps teasing the kids and telling them that they can keep the turtles since they are from Grandma, but that as soon as they are big enough, we are going to have turtle soup for dinner. It's going to take a long time for them to get that big. Right now they are only the size of quarters! lol

Tomorrow Matt moves to a new department at work (FINALLY!). He has been in his department for like 5+ years and normally people only hang around for a year, maybe two. It's physically the most demanding department in the entire company and he's been injured for MONTHS, but the injury didn't have time to heal because of how demanding the job was. The new department is so much better for him physically, and because of the hours, it's better for the whole family. He will be leaving the house around 6am most days (compared to 3:30 am before) and will be home by 4:15 (compared to 6:45 pm). He will be working Monday through Friday with an occasional weekend shift whereas before he worked a 3-2-2 shift before. One week he would work 3, 2 off, work 2. The following week would be 3 off, work 2, 2 off. That just rotated back and forth.

Tomorrow is a big day for the kids too. School starts back tomorrow. Sierra is going to be a 7th grader and Will starts 3rd grade. That means that he moves to a new school. Technically they both do. Our school system here is a little different. The south school is grades Pre-K thru 2nd. North school is 3rd -5th. Then you have the junior/senior high. 6th graders all all kept in one wing seperate from the rest of the students though (this wing actually connects the junior/senior high to the north school) and then 7-12 are basically all intermingling through the rest of the building. So tomorrow my baby moves to the big school and my older baby gets thrown into the lions den (aka high school). It's so strange to realize that because physically she is SO small that I forget sometimes just how old she is getting.

I also have some big plans tomorrow. I plan on tackling this house big time. It's so hard to keep up with everything when everyone is home during the day, but now that the kids are back in school and Matt is back to work I hope to catch up quickly. I HAVE to catch up quickly actually because I start school Wednesday and after that, there just isn't going to be much time for cleaning. I hope to hit it hard tomorrow and get the whole house done before work. Tuesday I want to relax as much as possible and print up chore sheets for EVERYONE and then Wednesday.....well, to put it simply, chaos will reign beginning Wednesday. lol I'm taking 17 hours this semester, working 25 hours or so a week and still trying to raise a family. This should get interesting.