Dixon Ticonderoga

It's school supply time, again. Do I sound less than enthusiastic? Don't get me wrong, I love school supplies. New pencils, highlighters in every color, the smell of Crayolas, fine-tipped ball point pens in black ink and maybe purple, too. Spirals without bent corners, doodles and messy leftover strips from tearing out pages. Graph paper, sketch paper, copy paper, construction paper, college-ruled, wide-ruled. When I was younger, I remember telling my mom that when I grew up I wanted to open a paper store (this was before scrapbooking). She was like, "Paper? What for? You can buy paper at Fred Meyer." Jace and Benj were going through their pre-packaged school supplies (purchased from the school to support the PTO). They both had a box of 24 pencils. Benj's were Dixon Ticonderoga and Jace's were an off-brand. Jace eyed Benj's pencils and turned a little green. Then his lightbulb went on: "Benj, how about if I give you 12 of my pencils and you give me 12 of yours and then we can both have the same kind of pencils?" Benj didn't see anything wrong with this deal and agreed. Jace got 12 precious Dixon Ticonderoga's and Benj got to match his big brother. I do have a problem with teachers that request certain items that are almost impossible to find. I have no idea where they're coming from. A few years ago, Cait had an English teacher that requested an orange pocket folder with brads. Each of the classes had a different color and Cait's class got stuck with orange. I drove all over Houston looking for that orange folder. I found many without brads. I found many without pockets. They would not do and I was getting desperate. If it wasn't in hand, in class by Friday her GRADE would be affected. Can you believe it? "I'm grading you on how well your mother can drive all over the city to find the elusive orange-colored folder. You have until Friday then I start taking off points." What? I bought a red hoping that we could paint it. Then dumb luck stepped in. There was a girl in another class who couldn't find red but happened to stumble across the last orange in the state. We arranged a swap and the grade was saved. This year our elusive supplies include a Composition Book with 3 binder-holes, 5 x 7 index cards that are on rings with a plastic cover, and ABC dividers. I have until Friday.

Erin left for Provo today and so did all of our money. We miss them both. :)

8 IS GR8

When you turn 8 in our family, you get to do some "grown-up" things. Such as learn how to light matches and use a sharp knife. You also get a big plate at the dinner table and a big fork and knife to eat with. When we were setting the table for the birthday dinner, Benj had a great idea: "Let's throw away all of the little [salad] forks! We don't need them any more." Silly Benj!
p.s. Baptism coming up on Sept. 6--mark your calendar :)

Origami and Chocolate-Covered Bananas

Something funny happens between sisters when they know that there's a limited amount of time before, all of a sudden, they don't live in the same house any more. Origami, together, for hours. Producing fish, penguins, cats and paper airplanes out of tie-dyed paper. Making chocolate-covered bananas together. Nuts or sprinkles on this one? Sharing the same kitchen. Looking through family pictures together. I like how you did this scrapbook. Showing the other one how to get pictures on a disc for printing at CVS. I love observing this. My girls are growing up.