Yesterday I registered the kids for the public school and got the vacuum cleaner that the housesitters messed up fixed. It only cost $12 for the vacuum repair.

The amount and kinds of forms I had to fill out at the school district were interesting. One was to gauge their level of English fluency (how many years have they been in school in the US, what languages do they speak, what language is spoken at home), and on another I had to swear and have notorized that my children had never been expelled from another school for violence, drugs, vandalism, and something else quite serious. Their eyes got as big as ping-pong balls when they heard that question! So, they are now registered and now I wait for the guidance office to call about my DS13s schedule. I would like for his math teacher to test him and see if he actually finished Algebra 1 in Sweden. This will be a real headache to make happen. His Swedish school had to individualize the math program for each kid which meant they were learning on their own. They did this because these kids (in the English-speaking section) were all immigrants or temporary residents coming from an assortment of different countries and math programs. I am not so sure that he actually has a solid foundation in Algebra since he was teaching himself. That is a real shame because we moved him to the public school so that he could be in their accelerated math program. It's not the end of the world though if he has to repeat Algebra 1 this year. He will still get all the way through calculus in high school. I keep telling myself it is no big deal and it is better if he is a little bored and repeats than if he doesn't have a solid understanding of these math concepts. I also found out that orientation for new elementary students including my DS10 is at 10 am in late August. How do working parents manage to get their kids to stuff like this? I will have no time off yet and my DH may be out of town. I may have to ask my neighbor to take him and hope that she can do it. That's just not the same as me being there and asking the right questions pertinent to my kid.

DS10 had his best friend from the Catholic school over yesterday. He stayed until 3 pm and was asking if he could go to the wave pool with us. His mother could not stay for that but she said that we could go together on Wednesday so the kids wanted to do that instead of going after he left. I hope the weather holds out for these kids.

This week is my last week at home before I start my new full-time job. We will be leaving Friday for 8 days to visit our families since we have not seen them since Christmas and my kids are really missing their cousins. I start the Monday after we get back. I have scheduled all of the fun things the kids love to do in the summer in this one week: wave pool, amusement park, water/amusement park #2, play dates, mini-golf.

Today we are going to the local amusement park and meeting friends that are here for their once-a-year visit with family and friends. They had to move about 6 years ago with a job relocation. My kids look forward to going to the amusement park every year with them. This day is always so expensive. I budget $80 for the day. The kids have a ritual with the day. Certain foods (mostly junk) are a must and are expensive. I indulge them as this is a once a year extravagance. If I get home with $20 I feel pretty lucky! We do pack lunch but have to buy drinks/water once we run out. The kids always buy pizza for dinner, and for snacks during the day they get some fries, ice cream, and cotton candy. With parking, that comes pretty close to $80. Crazy I know!! I have always taken this out of our eating out/entertainment budget for the month so it was a planned expense. In the past, the kids knew how much money per week we had for "summer fun" (usually about $30) and would have to save up the fun money to go to this park.

I am looking forward to the week of fun with the kids but am sad because this is the last summer that we will be together all the time and having lazy summer fun days.

With the new job I was told that I have to work 37.5 hours per week and that I need to be there between 10 and 3 but can start and leave whenever I choose. DH works at the same institution so it would be ideal to have the same schedule. For the kids though, it would be best if I worked 7 - 3 and DH worked 9 - 5. That way he'd be home in the morning until they got on the school bus and I'd get home pretty close to when DS10 got off the bus. Until I get this new job figured out, I will need to work the hours most of my co-workers choose to work which are 8-4. Many things to still figure out.