The Ol' Switcheroo

It is currently March 16th.  Four more days until Spring is officially here.

We have almost officially survived winter in Montana, once again.

It actually has been a very mild winter.  It began looking like Spring more than a month ago, but I didn't believe it was real.  I was fairly certain this was Montana playing a big joke on us, tricking all of our Spring flowers to start growing too early so It could drop it's temperature on their tender baby green growth and kill them all dead.

Spring without Spring flowers, Montana's cruel idea of a joke.

I was so sure that was going to be the outcome that I buried all of my premature baby crocuses and tulips under mounds of old leaves last month. This morning I saw all my baby plants have fought their way out of their unnecessary protective blanket, defiantly showing me they will not stand for this over guarded stance I have taken for them.

So be it.  They are ready now.

Speaking of protective blankets and guarded stances, we have decided to try a different approach to Kloe's Middle School experience.  Starting next Fall, we are going to give home school a try.

Academically, she is doing great in school this year; all A's and B's and nothing but praise from all of her teachers.  She is growing up, and is a very funny kid.  I truly enjoy being around her most of the time.  But I can also see the social pressure pushing in on her, trying to shape and mold some of her attitudes on life.  I just can't stand the idea of her specialness being shaped into this idea of Typical American Teenager.  Can. Not. Stand. It.

I don't know if it's just a difference of temperament between Derrin and Kloe that has allowed him to get through Middle School without the outward manifestation of The Social Pressure Molding.   Maybe Middle School is harder on girls?  Maybe it is easier for me to recognize in my daughter because I had that same thing trying to shape me once upon a time ago.

We have offered Derrin the option of home school next year as well, but he has already enrolled in High School and is pretty excited about his classes.  But the option remains open.

What do we hope to achieve with home school versus public school?

My biggest goal is to provide an environment where she will be able to grow into the best version of herself.

She is naturally drawn to singing, writing, and art.  I'm hoping that by encouraging growth in those areas, it will help her form an idea of self-identity that has nothing to do with trying to fit in and be like everyone else.


I've been doing a lot of self-reflection during this decision.  Am I asking more from my daughter than I ask of myself?  It isn't fair to expect her to do the work of being her best self if I am not also doing the work of being my best self.

Self-discipline is going to be the quality that keeps this thing afloat or sinks it.  The only way I can expect her to have self-discipline is if I also have it in my own life.

Next fall I won't be going back the seasonal job I've worked the last six years.  I'll be home with Kloe, helping with home school.  I'll have a separate goal list for myself.

I've been looking into different online home school programs.  One of the that looks promising combines 7th and 8th grade.

My ideal/dream week of home school would look like this:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday:  Get up at 7, get ready for the day.  Start school by 8.  Do the basic school stuff for about three-four hours. 

Other Ideas:

• Do something physically active, like play basketball (she mentioned that when we first discussed this with her), go on walks, see if she can do some things at my gym with me.
• Enroll her in an art class or have a voice coach once a week.
• Schedule definite times throughout the week to hang out with her friends, and plan on doing some traveling to make that happen.
• Spend more time with family... see if she can hang out with Aunt Renae, and Lyndsay.
• Have an actual mid-week service day that we can spend together.
• Derrick offered to spend more time teaching her how to play golf.
• She can also work in his office throughout the week to make some money.
• We can go on field trips together.
• Things I would love to share with her: Photography, painting, working with stained glass, making jewelery, and anything else we can dream up together.

Who knows how it will work out.  I've heard positive and negative experiences from different ones who have done it.  I'm hoping that by exploring ideas and defining the results we want, as well as acknowledging that we will have challenges, we'll have a better chance of aligning our hopes with what becomes reality.

What I CAN Control

Sometimes this world offers us a situation that rocks our world because evil has shown it's face, and we struggle knowing we have very little power to keep it from showing it's face again.

The knowledge that some madmen shot and killed 20 precious little kids last Friday in Connecticut is devastating.   Yesterday at work, I was browsing some news articles during a quiet moment, and clicked into an interview of one of the little girl's parents.  How I thought I could handle that, I don't know, but the next thing I knew I was in the bathroom unable to stop crying.  Reading about a parents worst nightmare come true will do that to a lot of people. 

This situation immediately brought up the debate of gun control.  I don't have strong opinions about the matter.  But, my life has taught me a few lessons concerning guns that I implement into my own life. 

Being raised in Montana has put me in close personal contact with a lot of hard core hunters.  I was raised in a house that had lots of rifles, and other guns.  My parents always had a giant handgun that Dad kept under his side of the bed.  As a child, unbeknownst to my parents, I always knew about that gun. I used to go lay on the floor by their bed and take it out to examine.  It wasn't like they hadn't talked to me about the dangers of guns; they had.  I knew I was forbidden from even touching the hunting rifles that they kept downstairs.  But I was very curious about the forbidden and hidden hand gun under the bed.  I remember holding my finger on the trigger, but I never had the guts to actually pull it.  It probably wasn't loaded, but it just demonstrates how easily something could happen when a gun is in the house.

When I was about six, I used to play with the grandchildren of a lady who owned the little cafe in Paradise; a litte boy and girl about my brother and my ages.  I wasn't super close with them or anything, but if I was out wandering through Paradise looking for an adventure (at six I'm pretty sure I wasn't "allowed" to just wander either, but I did pretty often- consequences always waiting for me when I returned) and they were out, I would play with them.  One day I overheard my parents talking about the grandchildren at the cafe.  The little boy had been playing with a gun and accidentally shot and killed his sister.

As I grew up, there were other times I heard about kids playing with guns and having horrible consequences.

I went to hunters safety when I was around fourteen; sort of a rite of passage for all Montana kids.  Even though I was never to be a hunter (I have never shot a gun at anything more than a beer bottle, not for any bad feelings about guns but because I don't like the taste of wild game, or any red meat for that matter), I at least learned to really respect guns.  As far as having guns for hunting, I have nothing against it.  Every year I do hear about hunting accidents where someone has been accidentally shot, but to me that adds up to there is some risk to almost any activity, and a hunter has made the conscious decision and decided the risk was worth it.

When I see people talking about their "rights" to bear arms, it usually has nothing to do with hunting.  It is always toted as self-defense against the bad guys.  The thing is, in all of my 36 years, I have rarely heard of a bad guy getting shot by the good guy in a moment of self-defense.  I have, on the other hand, heard of lots of innocent people being accidentally shot by their own (or their parents) guns.

I have absolutely NO IDEA why anyone would need an assault rifle.  The mother of the guy who shot all of the kids actually ENCOURAGED him to practice shooting her guns at a shooting range because she thought it was good for him to handle something that "required so much respect".  It wasn't in SPITE of his mental instability that she did this, it was BECAUSE of his mental instability that she chose to do this.  As some sort of mental and emotional therapy.  Okay, where was the disconnect between her brain cells in this situation? 

Personally, I hate guns.  As an adult and a parent, I have never wanted them in my house.  Derrick "inherited" a hand gun from his brother, but it stays locked up in a safe where my kids will never be tempted to touch it.  It DOES have a purpose for us, however.  We take it with us whenever we go on our long hikes in the mountains of Montana.  But it is a weighed decision of what danger to us is greater, the bears or the gun.  I'd rather never have that gun with us, but I'd also rather not be eaten by a bear.  So, obviously there are times when guns are good for self-protection.

When my kids are old enough, I want both of them to take hunters safety.  I don't know if either of them will ever choose to be hunters, but I feel the same way about hunters safety as I do about swimming lessons.  I want them to have the knowledge it takes to keep themselves and others safe (as far as they can help it).  I may not be able to control other people's opinion about how to manage gun safety, but I can control my attitude towards it, and also help my children know HOW to be safe around guns. 

Do I think there should be government enforced gun control?  This article talks about other countries who have used different gun control tactics with good results.  Evil isn't so easy to control, but making tools of mass destruction harder to come by would be a good start.  It isn't the permanent solution, but it would add a little more safety in the meantime.

It was hard sending the kids to school yesterday and today.  It is a knee jerk reaction to never send them to public school again, and to start them in home school.  I may actually decide to home school my kids someday, but if I do, it's not going to be a fear based decision. 

When I go to the mall or the movies, I always try to find escape exits and I scan the crowd looking for weirdos.  But I am not going to stop going to those public places. 

My job makes me nervous these days as well.  Yesterday, a guy came in and stood at my counter.  He held his hands below the counter awkwardly, and I kept waiting for him to put them where I could see them. It scared me; I completely visualized a hidden gun.  I work at a government funded office, and because of the nature of our programs and the help they offer, the people who walk through those doors are not always mentally or emotionally well.  Also, people don't always get the financial help that they think they deserve in some of our other programs.  We have all dealt with angry (and unbalanced) people there. We have a protocol to follow if anyone ever comes in to cause mayhem; hopefully it would help most people stay safe.  However, I am at the front desk.  But I am still going to go to work there. 

Every day I have a choice.  I can choose to live every day in fear and let my world get smaller and smaller or I can choose to LIVE in spite of the danger.  I hope I always choose to really live, even knowing that this world comes with no guarantees of safety.

Dreams, Ponderings, and Happenings

I had a dream last night that I was in Paradise, and had just learned that an old building had collapsed there, killing many people. It was an old hotel that had always been there (in real life the hotel had burnt down (?) decades before I was even born- I'd only heard about it's existence from my mom and played on the rubble of it's old foundation). In my dream, Renae and I went to search through part of the hotel that still remained. I looked in a cupboard, and found a stack of journals. I opened one after another, and realized that they were my mom's. I started crying, because I had always known that there had to be something somewhere with all of her thoughts written down. It was such a vivid dream. It's funny how most of my most intense dreams always take place in Paradise.

Old Hotel in Paradise, winter of 1955- picture posted on facebook by my cousin in
2011-it was fun to see, as I had heard about it my whole life, but had never seen it.

Mom was on my mind this morning.  I go to a class called bodyflow every Friday, and on one of the "letting go" stretch exercises, the instructor plays a song called "Still Here" by Natasha Bedingfield.  I'm already pretty relaxed from all the the stretches and songs before that one, so that particular song hits me particularly hard.  But I do love it.

On a completely different note, I want to talk about my son.  This morning I was up early, sitting on the couch drinking a cup of coffee.  When 7:20 rolled around, I heard Derrin's alarm go off.  He got up, and crept over to Kloe's room, and in the sweetest voice whispered,"Kloe, it's time to get up, okay?"  The kindness in his voice moved me.  At meeting the other night, Kloe was freezing to death.  Derrin took off his suit jacket and gave it to her, which also completely moved me.  I know that my kids fight like little cats and dogs, as only siblings can, but there are moments when I get a glimpse of what their relationship might be like in the future, and it makes me so happy.  I want them to be close friends as they grow up, and always have each other's back.  That is one of my biggest hopes for my kiddos.

The kids have been having so many field trips for school that it's been hard to keep up.  This week Kloe went swimming with her class (which Derrick when to) and then a nature hike (which I went on).  Derrin went on a trip with his band class, and then he went to the school he will be attending next year for 6th grade.  He seems excited about his new school.  He said that he will be able to take a semester of Spanish, so he is jacked about that.

explaining what art she created with the materials she found in the woods. 

her "nature art" project

on our field trip

drawing the bug her team found

natural face paint

painted girl

We survived last weekends camping trip. It was as dire as I predicted, but I have to say I had a good time. Probably a better time than most of the other campers there, because I had not harbored any hopes that the weather would be other than it was:)

Our assembly is next weekend, so the kids will be getting out of school on Wednesday for the summer (two days early) so we can take off to Billings.  Summer has arrived for real!!

5th Grade Nature hike

Now that Derrin is at the end of fifth grade, it seems like he is having a couple of field trips every week. Last week he got to go on a nature hike up  to learn about the plants of Montana. We both learned some very useful information. If we ever do get lost, we know a couple of plants we can eat, and a couple to use if we are injured.

On the bus.

Tour guide showing us noxious weeds, and how to pull them.

On our nature hike, learning about beneficial plants to know if ever lost in the forest.

Going, Going, Going.... G.O.N.E.



First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the kiddos.  Derrin is now a fifth grader, a "big kid" in elementary.  Kloe is now a third grader.  I went to school with them this morning to meet their teachers.  Both teachers seem to be really nice, so hopefully this bodes well for a good school year.  Actually, both kids just walked in the door from their first day and said they LOVE their new teachers.  This does bode well.

I can not believe that summer vacation is over for them already!  This summer was one of the fastest on record- I'm pretty sure that is a documented fact.  It looks as though I will have one more month before my summer vacation is over and I go back to work to my part time office job; I am still working for Derrick's business keeping the numbers balanced.  So, while I have more free time, I better concentrate on soaking up every last molecule of sunshine out there.  I'd also better concentrate on bringing some order to this house.  There are still bags that have not been completely unpacked from our Seattle trip.

We went camping with our friends Rob and Deana and their kiddos this weekend.  It was our last chance to really soak up some friend/nature/sunshine/swimming time for the summer. 

The lake we went to was AWESOME; warm, calm and beautiful.  It even had a sandy beach; something rare for these parts.  The kids lived in the water while we were there, and even the grown ups (myself included) spent a lot of time in the water.

We had a great time with Deana and Rob, and the kids all got along really well, which always makes me happy.  Age wise, she is right between their little girls Olivia and Alena.  They all ran around together (usually in groups of two... the mystery of why groups of three NEVER work out with little or big girls goes on and on....) and Derrin was able to hang out with their son Tyler.  All of them had a great time:)

Kloe and Alena seem to have a lot of similarities.  Same sense of humor and that little splash of crazy that makes us wonder what we are going to have going on once teenhood sets in.

I came up out of the lake at one point to dry off on the beach, and Derrick was smiling about something.  When I asked him what was up, he told me that the little girls had run over to him and told him very seriously that there was a headstone on the beach. 

He laughed, thinking their imaginations were going wild (not an uncalled for assumption, actually), and said he was pretty sure that there weren't any headstones on the beach.  They insisted that not only was there a headstone, but you could actually see stones around a grave.  When he again said he didn't think that graves and headstones would be allowed at the beach, they asked him if he'd like to see it. 

Looking Oh So Sad

He agreed, and as they let him to a stone sticking up that really did, strangely enough, look like a headstone.  He was thinking that was weird, he could have sworn there wouldn't be an actual headstone, but then he looked closer and saw the name on the stone was HIS (in little kid handwriting), and the girls were behind him giggling. 

There is no way to tell that story without sounding morbid, but I tell you, this is SO FUNNY.  No one EVER tricks Derrick, but because of their perfect delivery, these two little monkeys pulled a bit of a fast one on him!  I laughed so hard when he told me the story:) If it is a flash of what we have to look forward to when they get older, we'd better hold on to our hats.

Anyways, we will have to remember weekends like this one to get us through the winter.

Even a cold water wuss like me could get in the water!

Olivia's night art around a campfire

One Fine Day of Parachutes and Pickles, and some other Stuff

Okay.  So, since I am having a hard time getting started here, I will commence making a list of what my day consisted of:

1.  Woke up.  It was pouring outside.  Derrin had made a good strong fortifying brew of coffee for me (bless you, my son), and after my first cup I drove both kids to school so they could avoid the wet walk to the bus.

2.  Had a second cup of coffee.

3.  Started a third.

4. Off to school to go on a field trip with The Derrin and his class. Experienced a bus ride with lots of loud and kinda smelly 10 year olds (Derrin being the exception of that description, of course). Our destination: The Smoke Jumper Visitor Center, where we learned about all things pertaining to Smoke Jumpers.

Thing that stands out in my mind: To be a Smoke Jumper, you must be sized from 5'3" 120 lbs. to 6'6" 200 lbs. I am baffled how a little 120 pounder would be able to jump out of a plane into trees, cut herself out of the parachute to get out of the trees (because it seemed like that was a pretty common occurrence?), climb out of tree to get off backpack and other carry-ables (all weighing in at 120 lbs. themselves!) and then climb back up the tree to retrieve the stuck parachute, then climb back down the tree and haul her massive pack to make camp and then go cut down trees and chop fire lines. It would take a stronger woman than myself to do all that, or want to do all that. I want to meet a little woman that has done all of that someday. Anyways, Derrin took a lot of pictures (I'll post some) and it was good to hang out with him.

A picture of a picture.  No blue skies today.

Smoke Jumpers have to sew their own fire resistant jumping clothes.

Ropes to hang/dry parachutes

5.  Grabbed lunch for Derrick and myself, came home, balanced Quickbooks (I am practically an EXPERT at this point.  It may be time to start hiring myself out to help other companies with THEIR Quickbook questions.  Heh.), worked on Derrick's website issues, worked on marketing, just plain worked.

6.  Dropped a giant, and very full jar of pickles.  Spent the next half hour cleaning pickles and pickle juice off the kitchen floor.  Tried to see the bright side:  Vinegar is a good cleaner, even if it DOES smell like garlic.  My house may smell like pickles for awhile.  I may smell like pickles for awhile.

7.  Went to the library.  Finally invested the dollar to replace my library card AND paid the fine I have owed for two years.  Such a clean slate.  Kids both got tons of books.

8.  Dinner.  Derrick made his beautiful Salmon, rice and corn. 

9.  And then our Family Study.  Nice lesson on praying for strength, and also about our motivations.

10.  Took a picture of these flowers, because they were beautiful and the sun was finally out, shining through their petals:



11.  Put the kids to bed.

12.  Gave Kloes's lizard Lizzy another warm bath and put vege oil on her.  I'm worried about her:(  She hasn't eaten in quite awhile.  All the message boards I've gone to say warm baths and oil.  Hoping she feels better soon.

13.  Actually, this is what I didn't do today, or any other day for the last week:  Run.  Between the rain and the millions of things I've been doing, when in the world am I supposed to run.  *sigh*  Had a feeling that THAT would be the thing to slip through the cracks.  Darn it.

14.  Watched flooding happen all around us.  I think that we are going to be okay where we are- it would have to come up quite a bit to get us.  I hope.

15.  Wrote this blog.

And I will call that The End.  Of this day.

A Field Trip with My Girlio

Yesterday I went on a field trip with Kloe and her 2nd grade class. It turned into a very fun day.

First of all, we were transported everywhere on the city bus, which was a first for 'ma girl and 'maself (we are so NOT eco-friendly with our using CARS and such).

We went to the University, where our first stop was the indian center.  It was mildly entertaining and a kinda educational.  I think the lady giving the tour could have made it a lot more fun, because Native American history is exciting.

Next we went to the Health Sciences Center where we were able to look at all sorts of dead animals, like Griz and Polar bear skulls, lots of different kinds of bats, and hundreds of different kinds of animal pelts.

After that we went to the  Meloy Gallery art exhibit.  There was some very beautiful artwork there.  It is amazing to see portraits that capture the light and textures like they did; so beautiful and amazing.  I would love love love to go again.

We took some pictures (Not of the art though- against the rules, just ask the 2nd graders- VERY aggressive on enforcing rules.  I almost caused a riot suggesting I should take some pictures)... I'll have to try to get some in here!

Sickie

Kloe and I are at home again today, missing school and work respectively.  I almost sent her this morning, but she just looked too pitiful.  She was way more believably sick before she started talking and explaining her symptoms. "Mommy, I feel ok when I lay down but when my feet touch the floor *insert delicate and fragile cough here*, my tummy gets sick and my throat hurts." Um, okay.  We won't tell the school you just said that, little girl.  It messes with our credibility.

 So, now we are sitting on the couch watching "Cats and Dogs", while eating pickles and clam chowder.  If we weren't sick before, I'm sure we can get ourselves there with our food choices.

Since I'm at home today, I've been doing a little housework (very little), a little laundry (even little-er), and working on my painting stuff (just a tad) and reading.  I was a little more ambitious yesterday when I got home from work (Derrick stayed home with the girl yesterday).  The sun was shining out there so I went for a run.  I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I regularly get passed by other runners and bikers.  It always scares me- I can't hear them coming from behind (music in ma ears) so the first inkling that anyone is even there is when I catch them in my peripheral vision.  Then I'm always a bit embarrassed about being passed.  Really, if I knew that someone was coming up from behind I would at least try to give them a run for their money.  I am a *very* slow loper. The only time I feel like I should maybe try to do some speed work is the moment when I get passed by a non-slow runner.  The worst time was last summer when I was passed by a woman pushing a stroller.  But honestly, if that embarrassing experience didn't make me try to run faster, I don't know that anything will (maybe a ruthless trainer?).  I'm just happy that I'm out there at all- it doesn't matter to me if I am the slowest runner I know.

The weekend is almost here, and I'm glad for it.  Hopefully we will all get rested up and come Monday morning everyone will feel good again.

You Live You Learn

Kloe got up this morning saying that her tummy hurt.  I made her get dressed for school anyway.  Her head hurt.  I took her temperature (98.5) and then made her eat breakfast.  Then she was just sooo tired.  I made her get her shoes and coat on, told her I loved her and then sent her on her way.  I called the school to let them know she was out of sorts and to give me a call if her day didn't improve.  About ten I got a call that she had fallen asleep in class and now had a temperature of 102.  MEAN MOMMY ALERT!!!  But, in my defense, how can I know when she just doesn't want to go to school (which does happen occasionally), or if she is really sick, especially if there is no fever? 

I have a memory of my mom making me get ready for school after I'd told her I was sick.  I was seven (just like Kloe), and we had eaten fish sandwiches at a local restaurant the night before (pretty sure it was the sandwich the night before).  My tummy hurt too, but I didn't have a fever.  I cried through breakfast (like my girl did this morning) trying to convince her I felt icky.  Finally, I ran to the bathroom and was super sick.  I remember laying on the bathroom rug afterward, still sick, but also triumphant.  I'm pretty sure I brought that incident up to her every time I claimed to be sick all the way through high school.  :)  It worked too- I missed a lot of school when I was a kid.  Which brings me back to why I make my kids go unless they have a fever.  I don't want them to get into a pattern of being skippers.  It is a hard pattern to break.

Off the subject, but I was going through some greeting cards that had been my mom's the other day, and I found one I had written to her that she'd tucked in there.  It was a thank-you card I'd written to her and Dad about twelve years ago- I don't even remember writing it, but it said a lot of the things I'd hoped she knew I felt.  It made me happy to read it.

Back to today, I went and picked up my little sickie, and we spent the rest of the day on the couch snuggling and watching movies together.  Derrick came home to watch her while I went to the eye doctor again (it is healing nicely), and when I got back I started a couple new paintings.  Gonna try very hard to not add these paintings to my collection of other unfinished art stuff.  I shall persevere and prevail!!  Derrick says that right now they look like the front cover of a David Bowie album.  That's just super.

Right now we are on the couch- Derrick's watching television, and I'm writing this, while waiting for some banana bread I have in the oven to be done.  And that's about it for this day.

Mom's treasure box





First Day of School Pic

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Some Nuggets of Life

Since I haven't posted a blog for a long while, and I have a couple of minutes to kill this morning, I've decided to tell a little of what is going on in my life. I will also share a couple little nuggets of wisdom that I possess that I didn't just a few short weeks ago.

First for a nugget of truth: if you ever decide to wash your crocs (you know, the little colorful, elfin shoes you see on everyone these days), and you decide that washing them in the washing machine is the way to go, do NOT dry them in the dryer afterwards. I recently tried this maneuver on Derrin's blue crocs, and when they came out they literally could only fit a real elf. Too short for a seven year old's foot and yet far too wide for a two year old child's foot, I believe the only place these shoes would really belong is as a jaunty novelty item in my flower garden.

Now for something that is new in my life: both my children are in school now! For the first time in eight year I now have a lot of long periods of silence throughout my day. I know I should be more sentimental about my baby being old enough to be in kindergarden, BUT, the correct adjective for me is a juxteposition of both jubulant and mellow (in a good way). Things are running a little more smoothly for me, for instance, it is only 10:30 in the morning and my house is already clean and it will REMAIN that way until at least 3:20. That, my sisters, is celebration worthy. In my own defense, I have to say that Kloe was not one of those clingy little ones who couldn't bear to leave her mommy either. There was one brief moment on the first real day of school when I walked her into the playground to find the right line of kindergardeners to get into when I could tell we both were feeling some sad emotions. Just as I spotted her line, she hugged me fiercely and said,"Momma, I am going to MISS you today!!" I admit, I got a little choked up. I was about to say something reassuring back to her, when she saw her teacher. Before the words had even left my mouth, my baby girl had broke and run for me to her teacher and had assumed hugging her instead. She never even looked back! She got into the front of the line, all the while gazing adoringly at her teacher. I went up to her, made her hug me goodbye, and walked to the middle of the playground where I watched the line until they all disappeared into the school. I admit I was a little teary eyed. That lasted all until I got to my favorite little coffee shop where I ordered my favorite coffee without ANY shouting in the background about hot chocolate or muffins. Just the sweet smell of coffee, the sound of the radio, and my own thoughts to entertain. Jubilant and mellow.

Now for the second little nugget that I have learned: all the stuff I have been blaming on the kids for the last couple years, like "I can't work out until the kids are in school" or "the reason it takes me so long to clean the house and do the laundry is because of the constant distraction of the KIDS"... well, it turns out that is not so true. The kids have been in school for almost two weeks, and how many times have I gone to the gym? Nada, not even once! Tomorrow is the beginning day, I am just sure of it. And as for the house... well, yes, it is clean this morning. But my confession for that is that we are in the middle of trying to sell the house, and at 8:30 this morning our realator called me and said we are having people coming over to see the house at 10:30. I flew into high gear and got done what would have taken me most of the day normally because... turns out the real problem is that I am easily distracted if I don't have some heavy duty reason to get the job done in an expediant fashion. Not the kids fault at all.

Besides all of that, what has been going on in my life? You may want to know how my momma is doing. She is doing much better. We had another nasty experience with chemo this summer and she got really sick again, but things are definately on the upturn, which is a great relief:)

Also, I've been able to continue my photography, and hope to keep doing more with it. We have our new website up at amberdragonfly.net, which I am really happy about. We have a bunch more pictures waiting to go into the gallery, which should happen soon- our programmer is a pretty busy guy so we have to wait for him to get a little bit of free time.

So, that is me in a nutshell right now. I miss all you guys, and hope to either see you or get to hear from you soon!!!