Busy with back to school.....

So, school starts again tomorrow morning at 9 am (well, that's what time DD's school starts, anyway). That means I've got to be up at 7:45 am, and have DD up by 8 am. The bus arrives at approx. 8:40.

Thursday night we went to the meet&greet at the school to find out who her teacher will be. She's got a male teacher this year (she's never had a male teacher, it may be interesting to see how she interacts).... Mr. O'R. And he's got a TA in helping him as well. As well as 23 kids, thus far, in the class. That's likely to go up by at least 2, probably 3 or 4 as the year progresses. There are three 4th-grade class-rooms.

However, the combined 3rd/4th class plan was dropped this year, so DD will be in a class with only 4th graders. Which means, if we must pull her back because of academics, it will be noticable right away to her friends & class-mates. I hope it's not something that has to be done. At the meet&greet, I told the teacher that this was the origional plan, to have her in that combined class & see where her skills were at, and to pull her back into 3rd as inconspicuously as possible, if needs be. *sigh* Well, I hope she been able to keep her skill levels where they should be over the summer, and hasn't dropped back. We'll see, in a couple of weeks, when things settle down & the first testings are done.

We went school shopping today. DD needed some new clothes & a new bag. The FIL gave DH a $100 yesterday to buy DD some clothes with. Said the MIL spends so much on the nephews that he felt like chipping in a bit on DD's behalf. She was less-than-pleased when I told her that we'd be finding her a couple of bras today as well. Not real bras. Not even the training bras Mom bought me when I was DD's age. These are more elastic-bottomed half-cami's. Not even any hooks to figure out. Just pull-over type. But, a couple of DD's tops have seams right at the level that would make them impossibly uncomfortable to wear over developing breasts. She was embarassed the entire time, and kept telling me how mean I was to insist on buying them for her. We only got two at this point, a nude color, and a white. And she's not to the point yet of needing them under all of her tops, so that should do for a while. She finally admitted, as we were heading to the check-out, that her best friend has been wearing REAL bras (the kind with cups & underwires) for 2 years now, even though she's not any more developed than DD is. *shaking head* Rediculous, to put girls in constricting clothing like that at such a young age. I'm only insisting on this because I know DD is going to get to a point where she really DOES need support, esp. considering how physically active she is. She can get accustomed to wearing something NOW, and it'll make some of those cute tops a little more comfortable for her in the mean-time. Maybe she won't have a hard a time wearing the real-thing when the time comes, the way I always have. *wry chuckle*

*****

DH and FIL fixed my brake-lights so they work. They couldn't figure out how to get the origional lights to work on the origional wiring, but found a way to wire it so that the central tail-light brightens when I hit my brakes (if my tail-lights are on in the first place, or just light up if my lights are off otherwise). So, I've got brakelights again, thank goodness!

Unfortunately I DID miss the class. It was only 1 evening, and it was a good ways outside of Fairbanks, in the other direction from my home. Both my coworkers that were also going to go to the class live in THAT side of town, I live on this side. It sounds like it was a good time, though. Hopefully some other time I can attend a similar class. And, the option to drive DH's truck up, while he had my car, wasn't really an option. Unfortunately at 5 feet-nothing tall, I have a hard time driving more than the smallest of vehicals. Literally, the two times I've ever attempted to drive DH's truck (a full-size Toyota Tundra), I had to pull my seat so far forward that I was hugging the steering wheel just so my toes would touch the pedals. There was NO WAY I was going to try driving the big hulking thing out to Ester & back just for a silly little class. *chuckle*

I've been looking online at vehicals, and so far I'm still really liking the "look" of the Buick LeCrosse CXL. That's the mid-priced version of the vehical. And the one that's almost identical to the car I have now, but 16 years newer, with a CD player standard (instead of the AM/FM radio, no tape-deck that came in MY car). LOL I think the quoted price on the buick site is $25,500, give or take a couple hundred. And it gets 22/30 miles to the gallon (city/highway). I like that! My car currently gets 26 miles to the gallon, when I'm being a conservative driver, and in the summer. In the winter it drops to about 23 miles to the gallon. Hopefully after the new year, those milage rates are going to increase. I'd REALLY like to see that.

DH thinks that with major babying, my car may make it another winter, but on the other hand he's not sure. It's 16 years old. That's a good long life for a vehical with all it's origional major "parts". We'll see what happens.

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Other than that..... Haven't done any baking this weekend. *sigh* I need to eat up what's stashed in my freezer before I do any more, but I miss it. LOL

DH & FIL finished the deck last week. This weekend they moved the kennel to the back of the house & now they're bringing over at least one of the two canopy-garages. FIL bought some new ones & is giving us his "old". That'll give us shelter for our vehicals for the winter at least, if not a heated place to store them. Hopefully in a year or two we'll be able to afford to build a real garage for them. Then again, it depends on if we have to buy me a new car. It's kind of going to be "car, garage, car, garage". *holding hands like scales* Depends on what comes first, I suppose.

Ok. That's my little update. Hope y'all are having a good weekend!

And a Blessed Day, tomorrow.