The Bunch Enjoy The Last Week Before School Starts

This  is our pear...from our tree...we had exactly 6 left after all the storms. This is this first year it has produced. They were so sweet and juicy. Maybe next year we can manage to keep more. We also might get 5 apples next month if we don't get a storm.🤞

After the crazy busyness of the past week, we really enjoyed our slow week this week. We did do some fun jar ideas, but we also just relaxed and watched a whole lot of Olympics. Peacock did it right this year on their coverage. They really did show everything, and let me access it, for my $6 a month. We got to watch all the things we want to watch, but aren't popular enough to make main stream tv, like the equestrian stuff, archery, weightlifting, real volleyball NOT beach, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, basketball, handball ( had never seen what it was before, it's pretty brutal), ping pong, trackand field (hammer throw is awesome!), and, of course, gymnastics. We LOVE the Olympics and thoroughly enjoy seeing all (most of) the events. I hate swimming ( diving is ok), beach volleyball, and soccer! I can't believe break dancing is now an Olympic sport. I also just learned there are professional tag teams! I mean, come on, tag is a game at 5th grade recess, not a professional sport. Last time the summer Olympics were around,we held our own afterwards and had a great time competing with each other.The girls even made medals up to award. We may still do that, but we also would play "I think I can do that" while we watched and it turns out, no, no we can not do that, though A was able to do a full rotation crouched on her toe with her other leg straight like the gymnasts do on the beam and floor routines, but overall, we can't do most of the stuff, though D is super accurate at shooting and I think he could do well in that. 

The picture cannot do it justice. The trees were just snapped in half for over half a mile. Plus there was random dining chairs and household items strewn about. Very unsettling.

Some of our fun jar ideas were: swimming at the lake, going shopping at the outlet mall, comparing name brand candy to Great Value candy, and going to pick fruit. We first went to go pick fruit. My in laws use to have this Indian Peach tree and every year we would get tons and tons of peaches. They would make the BEST cobblers, jellies, and syrup. We have been really wanting to make them again and had heard that this farm in Denton has several varieties of peaches and that they were really good. We decided to head over there to try them out, but, sadly as soon as we pull into the lot we see a big sign that says "Out of Peaches". Sigh. Maybe next year. T and I decided to go to the lake while everyone else was at work since we're the only ones who really enjoy the lake. We went on the first day of school for everyone around us and were able to enjoy the whole lake to ourselves. This was our first trip since they opened back up partially after the tornado damage. I really don't know why clean up is taking so long. The gas station in Valley View still has overturned cars in the parking lot, next to huge piles of debris. The rv dealership next to it has half a lot of destroyed trailers and the whole area looks like what they show of the damage of the war in Ukraine. T and I went down a road where on both sides these huge trees were snapped in half. The roots and base are still intact in the ground, but from about 10 ft up all the trees were missing. These were very old and thick trees. We had to stop the car just to look at it because it was just so powerful. T was even the one to ask to stop and he NEVER asks that. Our taste test of the candy went better than expected. We had seen several videos on this that claimed Great Value was just horrible so we wanted to see for ourselves since I was completely unawares that GV even made knock off candy. We got kit kats, sour gummy worms, milky way, and twix. The gummi worms we were evenly split on. T and I don't like sour gummies so we preferred the GV because they were more fruity than sour. D and A preferred the Trolli brand because they were sour. However,on pretty much everything else we agreed. GV kit kat ( known as crispy chocolate wafer) was indistinguishable from the name brand. The twix was good. There was a slight difference between the two, but it was minimal. However, we all agreed on the Milky Way GV ....it was completely disgusting. Don't do that to yourself. Just don't. Take our word on it and just get name brand! The kids and I went to the outlet mall on Saturday....during tax free weekend.....in the middle of a radio station fiasco. Need I say more? It was so crazy busy!! We only stayed an hour, but we did manage to find A new shoes for work. This was a major accomplishment. A is by far the worst to take shoe shopping, though T is a close second. She is so picky. I have taken so many pairs back that she ended up not liking for one reason or another. In fact, she at first she didn't like the ones she bought. I had her try them on and she seemed not thrilled with them so I had her try on different shoes, then the same ones, different shoes, same ones, etc. This went on for awhile and finally she realized that she was always enjoying putting the other shoes back on so she bought them. I can't wait to see how her feet feel after working all day Monday. I may cry a little if we have to start the process over again! We also found some University of North Texas swag to wear to games this fall. We plan to see some volleyball, basketball, and maybe a football game.

We checked out the Ulta outlet with A. Sadly, it had all the same stuff at the same prices. No special outlet prices.

We love all the outdoor seating at the outlet mall. We enjoyed some pepperoni pretzel bites. They were really yummy 😋 

I went back to get the rest of the load out and Noelle had already moved in and curled up in the warm laundry before I made it back...less than one minute later! She was so cute that I just let her nap there.

A has done it! She has her grades back and she is an official college graduate. We are so proud of her!! She had planned to register for her board certifications test in December, but her transcripts won't be ready by the deadline so she will have to take the next test that is in March instead. Not that 3 months is a big deal, but she is ready to be 100% done and licensed. 

T made the club basketball team for this year...like there was any doubt. He's their best big. He can hold back the varsity players ( and really frustrate them🤣) He could have most likely played varsity. He played really well with them this summer, but he wanted to stay with his friends and I just want him to stay busy so I don't care. Plus the varsity coach is a little intense and there is one kid on varsity he really doesn't like.