Sept happenings

Well, we are thick into the swing of school again. The transition for Becky seems to have gone smoothly. She hasn't complained about the 6AM(ish) wake up from Daryl as her carpool picks her up just after 7. She's lovin the tuba and is making some new friends. Friendships take time, and I'm sure we'll be hearing about more in the future. Jenny gets on the school bus at 8:15, so she gets to sleep til 7:30 when I send Milo in to wake her up. (he's very good at it) This week I start facilitating with nursing students at the hospital. It will be a learning experience for us all! I am looking forward to it. I got the flu this last week, so I should be healthy for the next couple of months. I had forgotten how lousy one can feel when you have the flu. I actually watched 2 episodes of Dr.Phil...shows you I didn't want to move. I just need to get rid of what feels like a hairball in my lung, it's causing me to cough and also causing me to go a little crazy. I bought cough syrup today, my last experience with cough syrup cause me to toss my cookies (well, I actually drank it from the bottle in a desperate act at 4AM, so I may have taken a tad too much) so I have a slight aversion to it now.
I also cleaned out our veggie garden. Some relief that I don't have to go back for anything else. It was good to us, many a tomato sandwich consumed this fall, (bacon and cheese is my favorite). Maybe we should try carrot sandwiches now!
We also are a 2 car family. We went for 18 years with one vehicle...(ahhh, my 1st car, a rust colored Acadian...good times). With my crazy schedule with 2 jobs and carpooling and trying to get the girls to clubs, music, youth and school events, we have taken the plunge and are driving a new to us 1996 Honda Accord. Yup, I knew you'd all be jealous! It's quite functional and it gets me to where I need to be. It actually belonged to Daryl's folks and we convinced them to sell it to us.
Well, that's pretty much the excitement of our house. Daryl continues to work on the basement. I've primed some walls, that's progress! I don't want to hope for a date that it will be done, I've been disappointed already, so I will just say it's progressing in the right direction.

Summer Vacation

I'm sure most of you have given up checking this site. I've had a request to blog, so here it is.
Summer has pretty much come and gone, and in 8 short days the girls are back to school. Becky changes schools this year so at least 2 of us have a few butterflies about it. It feels like yesterday she was wearing her little dress and I was holding back tears dropping her off for her 1st kindergarten day. Time marches on!
Jenny's routine changes too as we/I can't be at 2 different schools at the same time so she is taking the school bus. She thinks it's great, I'm not about to burst her bubble.
Daryl and I went on a business trip (for Daryl)to Vegas and a highlight for me was going to the Grand Canyon. I prefer God's natural made sights to the really loud and bright lights of Vegas. Vegas was good, a relaxing vacation spot it was not. The pictures are of our Grand Canyon tour. The first photo is of the new glass walkway they have built 4000 feet above the Grand Canyon floor. We were not allowed to take camera's on it and had to wear booties over our shoes not to scratch the glass. Very cool. 2nd picture is pretty much all I saw of Daryl for the next couple of hours. And the 3rd is self taken which is pretty obvious! Our tour included stopping at the Hoover Dam on our way back, but we didn't linger very long there as it was 118 degrees in the shade, and the only place where there was some humidity in Nevada.
It's good to be back at home and I'm enjoying every last morning we can sleep in.

Mother's Day

It is always fun to wait and see what little surprises your kids come up with on Mother's Day. I had to work, and they really wanted to get up and see me off, but I really just wanted them to stay in bed as every minute counts to get ready for work at 6 in the morning. I was treated to a wonderful supper (BBQ T-bone, potatoes and garlic mushrooms....YUM!) and Becky made a cake for dessert. Gifts came just before they went to bed which was a nice surprise. One of the best treats, is when Becky writes a poem for us. Here it is....enjoy.

Do you like your presents
cause today we are your peasents
you are our mother
we are going to smother
you with kisses
and maybey do the dishes
i love you
now i gotta go to the loo

Death and Life

Well, there was a sad day last week when Daryl's surgery on my vacuum turned into an autopsy. It was a quick death, a couple of sputters and it died, never to suck again. This was last Wednesday. It was decision time, do we buy another upright or do we make the plunge and install a central vac. With much research and asking many people of their opinions, we opted for the central vac with a couple of stipulations from me. It must suck as well or better than my old upright, AND I must have the kickplate in the kitchen to suck away all crumbs and dust. So, it has come to be. Daryl spent the whole day yesterday installing everything and late yesterday evening, my carpets are once again clean (ish), they need a real carpet cleaning this spring. I am happy to say, it sucks and I've swept my kitchen floor about 5 times today, just to see dirt disappear from under my cupboard.

Don't Run in the House!

Sometimes the parent should listen to their own advice. Jenny and I were out the door to pick up Daryl when I remembered a form I needed to take with me. Instead of kicking my slightly wet shoes off, I made a few big leaps across the carpet to the kitchen. My foot hit the vinyl flooring and I knew I was in trouble. In the next couple of seconds, I found myself looking up at the ceiling and pausing momentarily to see if there was any excruciating pain coming from any parts of my body. To my relief, there wasn't any except a little throbbing coming from my knee which probably was the first to smash into the floor. I have attached a photo of the marks from my shoes. I guess I'm not that old yet, no broken hips.

This is love...

Jenny got a gift certificate from Build a Bear from her Grandma as a Christmas gift. She was anxious to get there so, the earliest we could make it to the mall was Dec 28th. Mistake. The line up was out of the store to "stuff" your bear. An hour later we had Blueberry's birth certificate and were on our way out of the store. I told a parent in front of me it felt like we were lining up for some fabulous concert tickets. This is quite the store. You can buy all sorts of outfits, even underbears for them. Crazy!