Hibbits Happenings

Mia was drawing at church and needed to erase. She pulled out an eraser from her pencil box. I noticed that there was a writing on the eraser and looked closer. It said "Emma". I told Mia that she needed to ask permission from her sister before she borrowed something. It is stealing if you don't. She flipped the eraser over to reveal the words "Mrs. Horn's Class" on the back. "Well, if I stole it, then Emma stole it first and then it isn't stealing from Emma when I take it." I asked Emma about the eraser and she had labeled it with her name and teacher's name in case it was lost.

This is typical of Emma. She takes better care of her things and wants to make sure no one else can claim hers once theirs breaks. Once all the family received light sabers in their stockings. Several of them were the same colors. Emma promptly went to her room and labeled hers. Justin was offended she had "defiled" her light saber.

I was driving down the main street of our neighborhood with Emma, 14. She saw a squirrel squashed in the road over the yellow line. She said "who drives in the middle of the street on the line?!" I suggested that perhaps in order to avoid the squirrel they had swerved, but the squirrel swerved as well and was hit. She shook her head and replied "squirrels these days..."

Spanish Teacher (ST): Los estudiantes ensunan maestros. (Students teach teachers.)
Student: True
ST: No, it's false.
Justin (raising his hand): It's true. Take me for instance. I teach you patience.
ST: Humpf!

We are living in a more rural feeling part of town. We hear coyotes, owls, and see lots of bunnies. There is even a bobcat that hangs out on our street. I have been taking Toby on walks and he loves exploring and chasing scents. He has lost all his excess weight and we have to feed him more just to keep him from getting too thin. This is quite a change for him. I often see him outside my window in the morning running through yard, jumping into bushes, and exploring. He loves running around the lake, but recently we had a couple "incidents". First, we were walking on the trail and Toby kept going off to one spot and wouldn't come when I called him. I went over to grab his collar and saw a severed cat head. Yikes! I pulled him away and we kept going. Later I told Mia I saw a decapitated head by the lake. She looked shocked and horrified. I explained it wasn't a human and she was relieved, then looked panicked and asked if it was a horse.

A few days later I was walking Toby on the trail again and saw something spinning in the trail. It was a fat mouse. I put Toby on his leash before we got close. Toby tried to go up to it and sniff it, but I kept him away. The mouse looked up, but kept spinning on the trail. We stayed off the trail for a week after this.

This summer was crazy! We moved the last month of school and stayed with some friends for a month while we closed on the new house and started projects. The projects have been slow, but I am so excited to be here. The kids spent the summer helping around the house, swimming in our new pool and the lake behind our house, cousin time, and camping with more cousins at the beach. They also got to spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa. I hope they will always look back on this summer fondly. Since we moved Grandpa Dave has come over nearly weekly during the late summer and early fall to spend time on the lake with the kids. It has been a blast!

Emma on the lake

Grandpa with Mia and Justin

Beach fun

Emma was in her first Road Show at church. Justin played Mowgli and Emma was a zebra.

Road Show

Road Show

True Love

So, I haven't posted in a log time. We had an eventful year. Emma graduated from elementary school and we moved across town. Emma has not historically done well with change, but she has been great. She decided to go to a different middle school than her friends from the old school. She said she was ready for a new start.

All of the kids were excited to move, but Mia was a little concerned about changing schools. She reluctantly gave it a try and loves her new school. Justin stayed at his high school and we are actually closer for him.