The Nelson Narrative

 Today was the first day of 10th grade for the girls.  Sophomores.  I can't believe we only have two more of these.  Not counting college, of course. Kayley Kayley again Olivia It has become my tradition to take the day before and the first day off.  Back in the elementary days, the day before the first day was "meet the teacher day", so I would always take them to that, then in middle school we would just go to lunch or get our nails done.  Last year was their first day of high school, though, so that day was orientation and that brings us up to this year.  The day before the first day is "Wildcat Day", which is mostly a freshman and new student orientation.  Olivia is in ASB so she had to go help with that, but Kayley didn't go.  Instead, her and I took some of her old clothes to this resale store called Plato's Closet to try and sell them (it's similar to a consignment shop except they just pay you then and there and then resell them, inst...

This is really late, but back in late June 2022, the girls and I took a trip to Boston and Washington, D.C.  It's something or school district does every year for the 8th graders (it's optional).  You can read Part 1 here. At the end of day 2, we flew from Boston to DC and went straight to our hotel in Arlington, VA as it was pretty late.  I don't remember what we did on what day, but over the next 3 days we saw all the regular stuff including all of the monuments, most of the Smithsonian museums and Mount Vernon. Where Lincoln was shot Iwo Jima Memorial.  Seeing this in person was amazing.  The group in front of the White House The Declaration of Independence Washington Monument WWII Memorial--each star represents 100 American military deaths. Sideways Washington Monument  WWII Memorial Lincoln Memorial George Washington's tomb Sideways, but George and Martha's grave.  I forget which one is which. Air Force Memorial Jefferson Memorial Jefferson Arling...

Here are my resolutions and goals for this year: Lose 30 pounds  Hike more.  The girls don’t like to hike and I don’t want to hike alone (for safety reasons) so while they were younger we didn’t hike much (together, that is. Paul would go with a buddy sometimes) but now that the girls can stay home alone we’re able to go wherever we want, so hoping to do a lot more this year. Read 17 books. My record for number of books read in a year is 16 so I keep trying to beat it but haven’t yet. Finish my Bible reading. In 2021 I started the read -the-Bible-in-a-year thing, but petered out around September. I’ve gone a little farther since but still have a few months worth to finish. That’s really about it other than a bunch of projects around the house but that can be another post for another time.