1st Day of School

Well it’s here, the first day of the new school year. It’s hard to believe the boys are in 2nd and 4th grade. Today the new routine starts. Mom needs to get up at 6 and then the boys at 6:30 to adhere to the new schedule. Everyone is quite excited for this next chapter in their lives.

Yesterday the misses and I made it to the gym and then the grocery store before picking the boys up around 10:30. They went straight away to the neighbor’s house to play. We then had all 4 boys over here for a couple of hours  before Mom loaded them all up and headed off to the pool for a couple of more hours of swim time. Once home, the play continued until dinner. Finally at 6pm we coaxed both boys into their pj’s and began to get them settled down for the evening. Both boys went to sleep fairly quickly. They’re sure good boys, we’re lucky parents.

Today the U.S. Pro Cycling Challenge starts here in Colorado. Now for those of you who don’t follow pro cycling (which is probably most of you) this is a really really big deal. It’s the first time the podium winners from the Tour de France (1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers) have ever competed together in the U.S. They say there will be over 1 million spectators here this week for the event. It’s all over the state and finishes with a race from Golden to Denver next Sunday. We’ll probably be able to walk a few blocks and see them go racing by. It’s like a little bit of Europe comes to Colorado. I’m going to make sure the boys catch some of it somewhere.

The little guy just got up after sleeping all night in his own bed. Looks like we’ve made the transition from our bed to his. Getting him his own room was a key component to making this happen. His older brother is still sleeping which is his usual routine. (he sleeps in like a teenager these days) Mom too is up and getting some coffee before making the kids lunches and a big family breakfast. We’re one of those family’s that send lunches with the boys to school. With all the over regulation in our lives, you’d think it would have filtered down to the quality of food they serve our next generation in our schools, but noooo, apparently it’s much more important to regulate other things. I guess it’s because of the lobbyists that convince (or buy off) our school boards that they need to keep buying their pre-processed foods for the kids. It’s funny because in most places, high fructose corn syrup is now outlawed but it still shows up in our kids school lunches. But wait, it gets better, how about the secret pact our government (Hillary Clinton) signed with Japan to say that their food was safe for export with no radiation so we (the people in the U.S.) would keep buying it. Now I feel for the Japanese people and their country, but most if not all of their food has been exposed to radiation. Again you have to look at news reports out of Australia as they don’t censor these things like we do. Yes it’s hard to believe here in the good old U.S.A. that our government would keep potentially harmful information from us! Even Japan came out yesterday and refused to say to their own people that their food was safe. Yet our government not wanting the economy to get any worse over here (which a worsening economy in Japan would do) refuses to tell us the truth about the levels of radiation in Japan’s exported food. Call me paranoid if you want but it’s pretty easy to figure out. Food exposed to radiation is not good for you, period. I remember the misses coming home from work one day telling me about a nanny or chef for a family who bought over $600 worth of food. She was saying the dad was some famous doctor and it took forever to shop as they would not allow her to purchase ANY produce, dairy or meat from California. When the misses pressed her as to why, she was told it was due to the high levels of radiation that came from Japan. It seems the doctor would not allow his own family to eat anything grown or raised in California. WOW. Now we find out that the ground under all those flooded collapsed reactors are really leaking even more (and still burning) since the two earthquakes over 6.5 in the last two weeks. Folks, this is going to be a problem for decades, get used to it and just pray it doesn’t happen over here. You might be asking yourself, “what does this half to do with a family makeover or me?” Well it directly affects all of our quality of life and the safety of our kids. One of our main goals is to get as healthy as we can as a family and avoiding things that are bad for you is the first step. Then we can worry about eliminating thing from our current life and diet that are bad as well.

Alright I’ll stop as no one wants to hear this bad stuff. Most people would rather not know because they think there’s nothing they can do about it. I just feel compelled to share with you all as you’re all family. How’s that for a reason! I could jump into how Obama is going to try to take as much credit as possible for Libya even though the French were the real leaders who sent cash, arms and people to help the rebels while we tried to play both sides of the fence in case he stayed in power. Just watch! Or how about how Obama hasn’t done anything about Syria which is much worse that Libya ever was, hmmm, wonder why? We’re all adults and can make up our own minds what’s most important to most politicians. In case you’re wondering, it’s GETTING RE-ELECTED!

Ok ok back to our family. We just had a big family breakfast and in the spirit of continuing our 2011 makeover, the boys now have a new routine to go along with the new school year. This year will be the first time they get an allowance. Coming with this is a whole new list of chores and responsibilities that must be completed or we deduct money from their allowance. Each boy will get $1 per day or $7 per week. In order to get this they must complete a number of chores on a daily basis. I won’t list everything but for example, every morning they must make their beds, take a shower (this is a big one!) brush their teeth (duh), eat all their breakfast, set the table (we rotate between the two boys), and clear the table. There are other chores each boy has during the week that are to be completed every few days like cleaning up dog poop and cleaning their rooms. They also now have to budget their own money. $7 is it for the week, they can spend it on whatever they want (no restrictions within reason) but when they’re out, they’re out. They also have to finish the first week before they get any money, we don’t pay up front. We’re sticking to this one and we’ll let you know how it goes. I can hear Mom and the oldest one already arguing over how his hair looks. She wants to style it with some gel and he’s saying older people don’t think that’s cool anymore! And so the battle begins. I could do an entire new blog just on school!

Ok this is running on and I don’t want to lose the few of you still reading so I’ll wrap it up for the day. Thanks for sticking with me through my musings. We hope you all have a great week and are doing well. Mom’s taking pictures today and we’ll try to get some copies and send you all some. Take care and God Bless,