Sick

Literally.
Really what I have is a simple sore throat that is causing my ears to hurt and excess flem. Sore throats drive me nuts. They linger on and on and on. Everytime you swallow, it takes a lot of work to minimize the pain and it always feels like there is a bowling ball in there restricting the pipe. And for me there is no built up...wham! Congratulations you have a sore throat. Sadly, I think Brecken may be suffering from the same thing a little.

I went grocery shopping yesterday at Winco and Costco and just about died. My stomach was turning the entire time, wondering what the grand total would be at the checkstand. I didn't even buy that much. I coupon, and usually I do okay keeping up with what I need. However they also come in cycles so summer stuff like salad dressing, mayo, mustard...you get the idea, start going on sale with coupons about now. I have been out of mayo and salad dressing for a while now but I can't bear to pay full price for any of those. Again, I didn't get any this trip. Sales are just around the corner. I bought fruits/veggies and stuff to make gyros. I also bought stuff to make artichoke dip to only come home, look at the recipe and realize that I didn't even get all of the ingredients. Annoying.

This lady and I were getting bananas. For the longest time they were $.38/lb until recently and they shot up to $.48/lb. Yesterday they were $.52/lb. What!? When did that happen. Gunnar was telling Heidi the other day that he really wanted grapes but we couldn't get them because I told him they weren't cheap right now. haha. He knows me well and we try to eat what's in season. Don't you? I just wish asparagus would go down a little more and that is in season right now. I'm just not used to the "new" price of everything especially when Jeff's wage at work is not changing at all. I'm not a huge foodie and could really care less about food so some days I wish we didn't have to eat period.

Yesterday we registered Gunnar for kindergarten at the new charter school in the district. I am excited and we were able to meet one of two kindergarten teachers. She was awesome! She taught in the Homedale school district for 25 years. 17 of those were in kindergarten. She got to the point where she started teaching some of her old student's kids. I just loved her. I'm not sure what the other teacher was like but I wouldn't mind having this one. But what made me sick? The cost for the school uniforms. I am not opposed to uniforms at all. Acually it will make getting dressed in the morning a mute point and we will definately know what is school clothes and play clothes. Plus the entire school district at the elementary level wears them so no big deal. What is a big deal is the specifics. I personally think the founders are being a little to picky. This is what Gunnar has to wear:
red or navy polo WITH the school logo embroidered
*now red and blue are the only colors the other schools are NOT allowed to wear because they are gang colors and here our school proudly does. Oh brother and Jeff just doesn't get it given that he is a juvenile probation officer in our school district/county.
*in the handbook they say that all the shirts have to be from the same dye lot. Oh brother...so that automatically makes you feel like you have to order them directly from the embroidery place. The lady doing the shirts probably can't even get all of the shirts from the same dye lot over the years herself. I do understand that one student will come to school wearing royal blue and not navy thinking that they did the right thing if they didn't specify but dye lot...
*it costs $5 to put the logo on the shirts if we were to find our own. The cheapest shirt would most likely be about $5 and the shirts cost $12 through the embroidery place. Might as well go through them and save my time and gas driving the dang things around. Nice...totally sarcastic.
*the logo has to be there. We have no choice. They can also wear long sleeved ones and crew neck sweatshirts are allowed with the logo. The cost is obviously a little more than the shirts.
Pants and shorts
*they have to be khaki but not any khaki. They have to be middle colored khaki. No cargo pockets or painter style. Might as well buy these through the embroidery place too at $11.25 per pair. Boys pants are so spendy anyway at other stores. I might get a couple and then match them to other stores if I can find them.
*they can wear khaki shorts too.
Miscellaneous
*he has to wear khaki socks if he wears the khaki pants and white socks if he wears shorts. They recommend solid white shoes (yep don't have solid colored ones) for K-5 because of the play that they do. I am assuming they can wear them all day.
*can only wear a brown or black belt.

Can you see where this all adds up quickly. We would have had to buy uniform stuff anyway but not this particular. The school district just requires a solid colored polo in any color but red and blue and I can't rermember the pants. Should be interesting to see where we come up with the money for this one and how much it all comes too. I am just thankful he is not in 6-12 yet. They have to wear khaki pants or girls can wear khaki pleated skirts or plaid pleated skirts and all have oxford shirts with cardigans. All of these dress codes make me think of the Seventh Day Adventist School down the road or St. Marks Catholic School in Boise. The founders were really wanting a diverse group of students for good reason since it is a public school, so I kind of wonder how the cost of uniforms will work with some of these families that may not be able to afford them. Can you imagine having more than one student starting where hand me downs haven't even happened yet.