BACK TO SCHOOL

August 11, 2008, a day that will live in infamy. Fogas family infamy anyway. The boys started their SENIOR year of high school, Mag started kindergarten, and I had my first day of teaching 3rd grade (which went remarkably smoothly). If you discount the fact that Milo bit Mark ("attacked" may be a more accurate description) when he came in the house, and that I started my day at school with one of my students throwing up,the morning was rather uneventful. Mag sprung right out of bed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The boys, seemingly plagued with a vicious case of senioritis, didn't fare so well. Hayden, however, managed to pull herself out of bed to witness Mag's first official bus ride, which was, by the way, Maggie's favorite thing about her first day of school. Note the pictures of the boys leaving through the garage: the mountain of carpeting blocking our coming and going is the carpeting from the Fogas Edition of Trading Spaces. Note again, the boys bought our neighbor's old Jeep, thus they have a new ride. They are no longer driving the 10 year old Ford Windstar.

2nd Annual Back-to-School Photo Shoot

It is hard to believe that another year has already rolled by. Last year we got the girls who were going into kindergarten along with the pre-k girls together for a photo shoot. Though it was BLAZING HOT, we decided it would be a nice tradition to continue from year to year. It is hard to say if it was hotter this year than last, but it was HOT today, for sure. These are just a few of the photos.

The Richardsons Came to Town

Our friends, the Richardsons, who we visit every summer for the baby reunion. For those of you who don't know, the baby reunion is an annual get-together with four of the families that we traveled to China with when we adopted our daughters. Anyway, The Richardsons had been to Key West for vacation, and they were driving home. We were so happy that they decided to stop in and pay us a visit along the way. As fate would have it, our AC went out, so we had 11 people in the house with fans running full blast all over the place. If it had been anyone other than them, I would have been mortified, but they have 5 kids themselves and are some of the most gracious people I know. So we all persevered through the heat, and I am happy to say, we all survived the night. Mag was so happy to see her friends. I was happy to see my friends, too. The dog did really well with the extra people,too, if you don't count when he bit Jay...but that is another story.

Our Baby

Thanks to Josh's persistence, we have added a new baby to the family. Let me rewind just a bit. While the girls and I were in Illinois, the cats were left in the charge of the three Fogas men. Under their ever-watchful eyes, one cat disappeared and has yet to return. It was Charlotte who went MIA. As a side note, she WAS our favorite kitty. Fast forward in time. Josh had been borderline obsessing about wanting to get a dog. When he found Milo on the Internet, there was no turning back. We all fell in love with him. Despite the fact that I had to grocery shop, clean house, prepare for school....we loaded up Mag, Brenn, and Josh to drive into the HOOD, in the torrential rain, to go see Milo, who was living at a local animal shelter. Fast forward again, an hour after arriving, we were swimming back to our car with dog in tow. Mind you, we were in the Prius, so Milo and Mag's car seat took up the whole back seat. Brenn sat on the floor the whole way home. I think he is a keeper though, Milo that is, the verdict is still out on Brennan (Just kidding, Brenn). Milo is already crate-trained. We haven't had any accidents, and he likes to play fetch, no attempts at climbing onto the furniture. He is a real lover, too. With the kids gone this weekend, he has been my shadow.