Tuesday, October 2, 2007

School, a decision to be made

This morning I found my dd in tears as she stared at her uniform for her new school. It broke my heart, her dad and I want her to make a good decision about where to go to school and I know it may seem like one day isn't long enough to make an informed choice but frankly the things she told me about her new school makes me a little relieved that she doesn't want to go back. Now the curve ball, she didn't just say she doesn't want to go back she said she would rather be home schooled than to go back there. (I am not really sure if that is a complement on our previous home schooling experience or not) Anyway, I decided that for today at least, she will stay home and work on a report of sorts weighing the pros and cons and coming up with a plan if we decided to home school vs. returning to her previous school.
Speaking of schooling, ds is going to work with his dad for the second day in a row. I know he learns tons (probably more than at home) when he is with him. Yesterday they were looking at the map, and ds got orientated right away and pointed in the right direction and said there should be an airport over there and there was. (I must say I am glad he got his dad's sense of direction, and am quite glad that gps has been invented for him mom.)Haven't mentioned him before, but it has been two months since we lost our sweet Rex. Rex was Miranda's dog, they did lots together. For a long time they slept together, I had to put a stop to it because, well, he was quite slimy. But for all the hair he shed and slime the shook, we miss him terribly. As I am cleaning I will usually find a reminder of him, slobber 8 feet up the wall from a head shake (think Turner and Hooch), or a sock from the depths of dd's room that is still hanging on to some of his hair. We found out in May, right before a camping trip with some friends, that he had bone cancer. We made a few adjustments to our schedule and took him with us on our trip instead of the to younger ones. I think that was a very healing trip. We all took turns babysitting him while others went on hikes or to the beach (no dogs allowed) and once again he was sleeping with his master. He turned around for a while, quit limping and even jumped around with his other canine buddies, but then his pain got worse and meds got stronger but didn't provide the relief he needed. When we moved here in 1999 we brought 4 dogs with us, Rex was the last of these. First we lost Cass, she too was a mastiff, Rex's girlfriend, then our Golden, Princess (didn't name her, she came that way) and then Zach, our Great Pyr. For the first time in 15 years we don't have a Neapolitan Mastiff among us.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Weekend musings

There are many things I admire about my oldest daughter (the oldest who still lives at home, the oldest oldest is in Hawaii) one of them is her readiness to try new things. I don't think I was that brave when I was her age. Last year she started going to Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and went all on her own, I always wanted a friend with me, still do. She has done wonderful and will have another promotion on Thursday. Anyway, she also started a new school today. We got a call last Wednesday that there was an opening at a local school and wondered if we wanted it, I hadn't even told Miranda that I put her on the wait list because I figured it was more for next year. We left the final decision up to her and although I wasn't sure she was going to go through with it on Friday, she did and is there now. When kids are little and you take them to a new school, you walk them to class, meet the teacher etc... this morning they whisked her off and I barely got to say I'll pick you up later. I was kind of "lost" after dropping her off, didn't really know what to do. Of course the two little ones started in that they were hungry and snapped me out of my fog, life moves fast huh?
My visit with my old friend on Wednesday was good. (by old, I mean the friendship is old not the friend, just in case you are reading this Bev) The kids picked right up as if they hadn't had a 2 year break. It was so neat to see how much they have grown and changed over the years. All 3 of her boys are great. The last time I had see the youngest he was almost 2 and now he just celebrated turning 4, he has changed the most, he is about the cutest little guy I have ever seen.
Just to continue with catching up we also went to a scrapbooking crop this weekend, there were 3 of us, we left my house about 6:30 am and traveled 2+ hours away, cropped, ate, conversed for 12 hours and headed home around 9 pm. This is the longest I have been away from all of my kids in many years. I won't lie, I had a wonderful time being "off duty" for the day. I was however glad to see my youngest still up when I returned home at 11:30 pm (man that is late for her), we settled in for a night time nursing and then she was content to play for a while so I could check my email (I had also been away from my computer!). We eventually went to bed around 12:30 am. As I was fixing my hair that morning I remember thinking there is no way this is really going to happen (I am usually a positive thinker but this was too good to be true so I had my doubts) When 6:30 came around and my friend wasn't here yet I was nervous so I called her, she was on her way! (no sure why I was worried when she wasn't her on time, neither one of us has been on time in years, and it was only a few minutes) I don't think it was until I sat down in my chair and started pulling out all my supplies that I realized I was actually going to have the opportunity to scrap book for 12 hours without kids interrupting, I believe at this point I was "giddy". We did leave and go have lunch (once again a treat to go have lunch with girlfriends, if all our kids had been they would have totaled 12) but worked through dinner (ordered pizza with some others). I finished journaling an album, got dh's album from his summer backpacking trip done (he will have to journal that one) and got a ton of organizing done. This crop was mostly consultants for Creative Memories (THE best scrap booking supplies available) so I picked up some good tips.
My wonderful Brother and Sister in law made a big donation to my Breast Cancer 3 day walk, I am getting closer! I am a little concerned that I have 25 days left and over 1200 left to raise but we have a big dinner planned for this weekend and hopefully that will help. Need to get my ebay aution up and going in the next few days. I will have 2 purposes for that, anything with pink in it will go for the 3 day walk any thing else will go for my Hawaii fund. Will post when it is up.
I have been fighting a cold for a while, fortunately felt pretty good on Saturday, but Sunday I was feeling kind of run down. The kids were playing good and I was able to rest a lot. I would still like to just lay around sipping tea today but at least I feel better. Overall, I had a great weekend, hope you did too.