[Gathnet] McClatchey doings..

[am]

Hey all,
    Thought I should give a brief note on what we're up to.  After all 
the events in June and early July, we've spent much of the summer 
preparing for the next school year.  I hope that I have most of the 
scheduling and prep done for the younger 6 - we may even get a few days 
in this next week - I'll have to see.  I am still thinking about 
possible AP test for the nest May.  Anna and Rachel as the high 
schoolers in residence are going to continue to be busy - they have 
attended the piano institute at Point Loma and Anna was also at a Suzuki 
Strings camp playing the viola this month. (She had a chance to work 
with some of the professors at the music department at Point Loma and 
Likes them - but has not at this time had a chance to meet anyone from 
Wheaton's Concervatory)   Rachel has been working steadily at her 
biology for next year and decided to finish up a second year of Algebra 
this summer while she was on a roll.  She also began working on cello as 
well as piano this summer.  Anna did some finishing up in  her chemistry 
and has the end of her second year of Algebra almost finished.  She 
continues to work at piano, violin and viola.  Anna will be in the 11th 
grade this year and Rachel is in 9th - yeah no seniors this year :-) .  
Tad starts the 7th grade, Paul will be in 6th and Micah is in 4th.  
Bethany is working at Kindergarten skills.
    Nate goes down to Point Loma on Thursday morning this week and 
classes start the next Monday.  While the girls were at the music camps 
at Point Loma, we had a chance to see the outside of Nate's dorm.  The 
"poor" guy's dorm in right down by the beach - very close to where Daddy 
used to have his office.  There are lots of easy walks down the cliffs 
to the beach from just outside his dorm.  On sunny days it is hard to 
imagine a more beautiful spot for a dorm.  It should also be of help to 
his allergies and dry sinuses.  The down side is that the rest of the 
campus is rather steeply up the hill.....and this dorm is the farthest 
from any of the main buildings.  I'm told that there is a bus system 
that goes up and down as well as a long stairway if he stays on top of 
the schedule.  Even so he is pretty wiry and fit and I don't think he'll 
have much trouble even if he has to walk.  He has his fall schedule, but 
there are two classes that will need to be changed - one is for a 
computer science course he tested out of with his 5 on the AP test and 
the other is waiting for the mandatory math entrance test. Since he did 
well in both semesters of calculus, I hope that he gets into something 
he finds interesting to offset the Spanish and writing courses he may 
find less to his liking given his past history.  /_I_/ keep trying to 
get his dorm supplies prepared to take down... Nate on the other hand is 
not at all worried.... Drives me nuts.
    Kipher since this is his second year leaves the following Monday 
with classes to start on Wednesday.  He is also not preparing as much as 
I would like.  He still has a few things to get straightened out on 
campus with course work - ie he needs to add another class  but is all 
set to room with the same roommate as he was with last year in Fischer - 
a few doors down from last year's room.  No beautiful ocean views for 
him - just Fischer beach.  He and Nate will be sending pictures back and 
forth of oceans and snow.... I guess that he will have some carting to 
do from the post office if he ever gets his computer into the 
mail.....Anyone with suggestions on how to send it safely without it 
getting damaged?  I have been pushing for him to disassemble it a little 
this time.  Last year he thought he would not have to do so  and I have 
been told that the mail process caused problems.
    Anna is eager for them to be gone since she has plans to move into 
the small end room as the oldest.  She plans to paint the walls which 
Micah and Paul have gotten rather messy.  The rug will also probably go 
even if we do not get another in right away.  Anna would rather work on 
it right away, but we still have eight kids to have sleeping places for 
- unless we send a couple out in the tent for a little while...
    The most recent other occurrence is the increase in automobile 
insurance - Nate has been practicing with his permit for the last year 
(it expired next week) and finally got down  for the test last 
Thursday.  He passed without much difficulty and so we now have two 
young teenage males on the insurance.  Yikes.  Fortunately, both are to 
live on campus and neither has a motorized vehicle.  So they should be 
classified as infrequent drivers.  Anna although 16 is not in a hurry 
either and since we have not class easily available will probably not 
get a permit until next fall when she can take the test without a lot of 
extra forms....We'll see, she may decide that she wants to work at it. 
    I had thought that with Scott and two older boys here this summer we 
would get some other projects done, but no such happenings have 
happened.  I have not managed to get to anything extra either so - maybe 
next summer.  I even have a few more things to do for biology lab which 
starts the first week in September. 
    I should quit while ahead.
Anita