First day of Junior High

He picked out his Converse tennis shoes & chose his outfit the night before.  He was ready to get help with his hair.  He gets to sit on the other side of the bleachers with all the secondary students.  He has a top locker with a friend. (sigh) 

His classes are going really smooth so far.  He's only had a little homework, but I know things will get busier.  We start swim team next week and then bible study the week after.  Overall, he has done really well, and his teachers have been super supportive of trying a few things to help him.  Surprisingly, they seem to be working too.  I think we are off to a great year! 

So many years of hard work, and finally a wonderfully relaxing summer.  I'm looking forward to this new school year.  I hope I'm still saying that in a few months.

"I have bad eyes"

I've heard about Zachary having "bad eyes" for more than six months.  He has bad eyes when he gets problems wrong in math or when he doesn't understand the directions in English.  There's all kinds of reasons he has "bad eyes".  So I decided it was time for an official eye exam at Dr. Spitzberg's office.

He was a stellar patient.  Did very well with the eye charts both far and up close.  I actually began to wonder if maybe he was having trouble seeing, but then the doctor said, "As I expected.  The data is conflicting, so I don't think there are any issues."  They took a picture of the inside of his eye, which was a little tricky with the bright flash (he says a flash can damage his eye too).  Nonetheless, his eyes were healthy on all points.

However, he still insisted he needed glasses and decided to try a few on.  These of course had no prescription, and he said "he could see better".  After having already lost a retainer, I opted not to buy another item that wasn't needed and could likely be lost too.  But he sure looked cute...

Mature hair style

 It was time to get Zachary's haircut after a short cut for the summer.  With his obsession with the Houston Symphony, he decided he wanted a hair style "like Adam Dinitz", who happens to play the English horn.  I know it is a little weird that he knows his name, but they published it in the program.  Should have figured he'd have them all memorized in due time.

Nonetheless, we took our picture and the stylist cut it and fixed it all cute.  We were successful at home the next day, so now I needed to teach him.  After his shower, he got out, and made his own first attempt.  Can you see the hilariousness of this picture!  A huge glob of gel is placed pretty much only at the front, and no where else.  He's got two spikes rather than a messed up look, and it was hard as a rock.  There was no moving this hair.

He's playing a video game & wouldn't look.

 I'll aim to get a good picture on the first day of school so you can see the real Zack Sansing, next Houston Symphony oboe player!  I know you will be surprised with the first day of school outfit, same old uniform.

4th of July in South Padre

We made our annual trip to S. Padre the week of 4th of July.  It was big fun!

We started with a trip to a souvenir shop I had always wanted to stop at because it is huge!!!  Now tell me if this doesn't attract you...

 

Inside the store we found some fun too!  Starting with hat fun...

 

Dead baby sharks if you wanted a souvenir - gross!

And who passes up the pirate picture...

We left with an Aggie coffee cup and a surprise for Granmommy...

While there we tried something new.  I read a story in my Aggie magazine about an Ag having worked down in S. Padre with the sea turtle rescue and release.  So the plan was to head over and find out when the turtle release was so we could plan to go.  Nature had other ideas.  The only day of a 7A release was on Monday which I had planned to call that day and find out all about it.  Drat!

This is Allison.  She has one fin and a prosthetic fin

Largest sea turtle species is approximately this long - wow!

Crush, from Finding Nemo

Two crazy turtles

We also got to go over the 4th of July week.  John has a friend that lets us use their condo, but they are normally there that week.  They had bought a house down there, so we both were there that week.  That was fun for many reasons.  John played golf with his friend, and then Mike, John, and his friend went on a day fishing trip.  John made the big catch.  For the 4th, the Ravenberg's had us over dinner and to watch the fireworks.  Wow, what a show (pictures never turnout)!

Little hermit crabs without their shells

My boys!

My parents!  So glad they came!

 And then we did some of what we always do...

Mom and I did a puzzle - thank you A. Kathy

phone games and couching

more couching by Pops

watching sunsets

Even a noodle can be a horn.

Look at the size of this "child's" size hamburger

Zachary swam as often as we would go to the pool, we rented movies most nights, and ate some delicious food!  All and all, it was a nice trip.  Zachary left The Ravenberg's a note in their Guest Book.  They are planning on selling the condo, so Zachary stressed coming back to the condo rather than their house.  Cute.