Glad we have a quiet weekend; it has been a looooooong week, and I remember thinking that way back on Tuesday. Sometimes that's just how it is. Nothing exciting to report; busy week at work and at home, and nary a social activity in sight for the weekend. Just baseball for Neil, and then we're taking it easy.

Fifth grade has seen a racheting up of activities for Jace, now that he is a pre-teen. Neil and Paige are busy kids and have always had lots of extracurricular activities, but it seems now we're starting with Jace, too!

His open house at school was earlier this week; I was so proud of his progress so far this year, with his school work and organization. He's enjoying 5th grade and a new school (with his own locker!), and he's figured out and is following a much better routine on organizing himself and his homework. The teacher had a handout on things for parents to look at while we were there, and one suggestion was to check his locker and help him clean it out, if need be. I was expecting the worst, but pleasantly surprised to find it neat and organized!

Yesterday was the first day of orchestra, and I was happy to see Jace so excited about it. I was surprised when he came home a couple of weeks ago and wanted to join orchestra; he is going to play the viola. I planned on renting a viola for him, just to make sure that he really does like orchestra before we would consider plunking down money to buy an instrument. I had called a couple of stores and both were equal on monthly rental fees and both had a basic monthly contract. So, I just chose the store where I had taken guitar lessons. The guy asked about the monthly insurance on the instrument as we filled out the contract, and I asked how much it was -- the insurance is $6/month, and the instrument is a (gulp!) $700 viola!

We went ahead and rented it, but I told the hubby about it the next night, and I had to pick him up off the floor when he found out what we were trusting this $700 instrument to an 11-year-old who would quite possibly lose his head if it weren't attached! Needless to say, Mr. Research got online and started looking at other options. (I know I give him grief about it, but he is always "in the know" about whatever it is he is going to do or buy, and I love him for it!!) But after much looking and discussion, we decided that even buying a much less expensive one would probably still be more of an hassle because he will probably outgrow this one in a year and then need a bigger size. So, we're sticking with renting this one and paying for insurance for the next 8 months of school. Then we'll go from there.

In addition to viola payments, I just had to write a check for Jace's school field trips for this semester, AND we paid for fall baseball league, AND he had the fall mixer to attend last week! Last night he was in his room, TRYING ON CLOTHES for the next day. Haven't seen that before! Now, granted, it was just a t-shirt, shorts and a hoodie, but usually he couldn't care less about clothes. Welcome to pre-adolescence, I guess!