New background

As you can see we have a new background...very cool:) Wanted to update on the life of the Partins. The kids made it through the first week at their new school and did very well. They really like it and yesterday when Camden got in the car he immediately told me "I had a good day today!" It has been a long time since I heard that enthusiasm about school from him. I am going in on Tuesdays to Grace's class and on Friday's to Camden' s to monitor lunch for the teachers. They do not have a cafeteria and have to bring their lunch everyday so the parents come in and give the teachers a chance to take a break and eat.
Homework started last night but they really did not have much, easing the kids into it. We have a dessert social Thursday night to meet other parents, etc... I need to figure out what I am going to take...ugh!

I have been busy painting the living room, dining room and kitchen. Since it is an open area we did Hawthorne yellow throughout with an accent wall in Confederate red. Once we are done and have eveything back in order I will post some pics. Next week I am spray painting the patio furniture:)

This last week I have been able to catch up with several people I knew from my FL days. It has been great to hear how everyone is doing and what they have been up to all these years. Hopefully I will come across more people in the vast world of the internet!

Well, I am off to the school and then home to paint some more!

School News...

As I have made known the kids were redistricted to a new school for the 2008-09 year. We were being moved from a Great year round school to a lower performing traditional calendar school. We tried twice to get the school board to let them stay where they were but we were turned down both times.

Move ahead to July 10th. I went to an open house about a new school that is opening in Wake Forest for this school year called Thales Academy. They are a private school (b/c of the cap on charter schools) with grades K-5 this year and then they will add a grade each year with hopes of going through 12th grade. If you have heard of Franklin Academy in WF it is basically the same school, started by the same guy only it is not free like FA. At the open house I got a lot of info and felt like this is where the kids needed to be in school, especially Camden. There are small class sizes and a lot of individualized attention, which he would greatly benefit from. I went ahead and applied and prayed for the best.

In order for the kids to go we would need to apply for and get financial aid, something I never thought we would need until college. They also had to go through an evaluation to be accepted. They came through the evaluations with flying colors! It was just a matter of how much money would they give us.

Well, I got the call today and we got every bit that we asked for!! I have been praying that if they were meant to go to school here that the money would work out and that things would go smoothly as far as getting them in and it all worked out, God is Good! So, Camden and Grace will be starting school on Monday (21st) and they will be year round still and Grace happens to have a couple of friends from dance who will be attending too, one will be in her class. We won't have to worry about the EOG with Camden b/c they do not use it, yeah!! Pray that they adjust well as it is a different curriculm where they are taught a grade level ahead of where they are, that they will make new friends and have a great year. Now we have to go buy uniforms before Monday but at least we won't have arguements about what they are going to wear anymore:)

I will update their progress after they have been in school for a couple of weeks!

Vacation pics

It's Summer!

It is summer! We went on vacation to Lake Gaston a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. Camden was at Camp Willowrun for the week and we stayed at the home of some friends. We had a relaxing time going out on the boat, swimming and fishing and seeing friends that we had not seen in several months. It also made me long for a lake house of our own! Maybe oneday we will be able to have one, until then I will dream and use houses of our friends.

Camden had a great time at camp! The activities he signed up for were fishing, swimming and archery/riflery. He had a great counselor and is already to go back again next year. Some friends of ours run the camp and they told me that Camden would run up to them everyday and tell them it was the "best camp he had ever been to!" It is also the only camp he has been to but I am so glad he enjoyed himself.

For the 4th of July we stayed close to home this year. We went to see the Carolina Mudcats play Sat night and enjoyed the fireworks after the game. It looked like we were going to have storms all night but thankfully they passed the game by and all we dealt with were sprinkles at the beginning. The kids got Muddy the Mudcat to sign their foam fingers and we all had a great time.

As soon as we got back from vacation I started some laundry and lo and behold my washing machine broke! We have had it for 8 years and never had a problem until now but it was going to cost almost as much for a service call and repair than what we could have gotten a new one for. Thankfully Sears was having a sale over the holiday weekend and we went and bought a new machine and it was delivered Sunday. We got a front loader, not an expensive one. It is sooooooo quiet and since it is a front loader the kids can start doing some (supervised) loads of laundry...yeah!

We have taken our house off the market for now. The builder reduced the price of one exactly like ours that has been sitting for almost a year to $15,000 less than we were asking for ours. Since we could not drop that much off the price we decided to take it off the market and see if he sells the other house and then relist it. Since we do have some equity we may take this time to replace the carpets with hardwoods in the kitchen and living area.

Well, as of right now the kids are changing schools due to redistricting. I am not too happy with where they are going but thankfully the Asst. Prin at their old school is now the Principal at the school they are supposed to go to. I am going this week to a open house for a new private school that is opening in a few weeks. It would be a year round track like they are used to and they would get more one on one teaching which I really think Camden would benefit from. It is a great curriculm but strict and we would have tuition to pay. We cannot afford to send them both but the school does offer scholarships and if it is enough and everything works out we will more than likely send them. I have also applied to see if there are any openings for clerical or Teacher Assistants at the school since no openings have come up in Franklin County like we all thought there would. Pray that if Thales Academy is where we should send the kids that money would not be an issue and that there would be a job opening. If Franklinton is where they need to be then I pray that the Lord would give us the peace of mind that we need to send them there or if there is another option that it would be revealed soon.

Hope everyone is having a great summer! I will post some vacation pics soon:)