Mitchell's First Day of School

Today was Mitchell's first day of school--the big 2nd grader.  He wanted to spike his hair and chose his own clothes--boys are so great that way--tee-shirt and shorts (Madeline's a whole other story).  Since Jake is in Alaska with Pete for the week, Mitch is on his own.  Makes me a bit nervous.  He's gotten dependent on Jake for help in getting on and off the bus.  Once when Jake was sick last year, Mitch got off on the wrong stop and got disoriented and lost.  Scary!  But I think it's good for him to gain a little independence, then tomorrow he can play big brother to Madeline on the bus.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he had a great day and that his teacher was nice.

Madeline met her 1st grade teacher today and I'm sure she'll be a great!  I really liked her teacher, Mrs. Lloyd.  When we were walking into the school, there were huge black clouds a bit south of the school.  While we were in the school, they made an announcement that there was a grass fire and that the air quality was very poor.  No kidding . . . we could smell the smoke in the school and when we walked outside, ashes were falling to the ground.  I drove an errand further into Sandy to see if I could see where the fire was, but the smell of smoke was giving me a headache, so we came home.  When we got in the house, you could still smell a faint smell of smoke on our clothing.  I'm curious to watch the news tonight and see what caused the fire.  It looked like it was  near a suburban neighborhood, I hope it doesn't do too much damage.

While we were driving, I also found out that my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, a down note to an otherwise nice day.  They did a surgery Thursday, but apparently didn't get all of the cancer, so they are doing another surgery this Thursday.  I hope she'll be all right!  While we were in Michigan, she had not been very well, but has had such improvement the last couple of years.  It's hard to have grandparents and parents getting older.  That's another disease to add to my family medical history . . . diabetes, heart disease, and now breast cancer.  Unfortunate, but good to know!

I also thought I'd add a blip about Pete and Jake in Alaska.  They left Friday and don't return until next Sunday for a fishing trip in Alaska.  They are staying in a remote lodge near Juneau, so they don't have cell phone coverage.  (It's times like this when I realize how much I take Pete for granted.  It's nice to have a best friend you can talk to about everything, makes me miss him.  I find myself wanting to talk to him about my grandma, but instead I'll blog about it).  The first two days, they stayed in Juneau and took a 10 hour boat tour of a glacier.  Jake was so excited about the trip, a whale swam next to the boat (I'm jealous, I love whales), the captain let him and Spencer ride up front with him, but didn't appreciate all of their talking, and huge chunks of ice fell in the water and shattered into thousands of pieces.  I don't think Jake has ever had so much to say on the phone!  It's nice to hear his enthusiasm about such an amazing experience.  Pete said the scenery is spectacular--granite mountains rising thousands of feet right out of the ocean.  He said it has also rained the entire time, misty rain, but rain none the less.  I am excited for them, but also jealous.  I have always wanted to go to Alaska--maybe next time Mitch and I can go on a mother/son fishing trip to Alaska!  Anyone want to join us?

*Update on Mitch:  He made it home safely on the bus and said, "Second grade is awesome!"  Sounds like a good start to the year.