I love Summer!
Finally, it's summer! Well, sort of a semblence of summer vacation, anyway. VBS wrapped up last week - talk about stress! Jackie missed it this year because she was at summer camp, but Sarah attended and Luke operated the AV equipment. I was one of the music directors and we had 65 children this year. Awesome! Last Sunday, it was a trip: Dave's truck broke down up north, so he was stuck out of town - I had an announcement at church - so I couldn't miss services, then I had to drive the Jack to camp (Hiram, Ohio) then get back for Vacation Bible School by 5:00! I did it, of course, but I was whupped. All week, the same: up early, to the church right after work. Wednesday night, we got home about 9:30 and Nat, Mike and all 5 kids were there. Nat and Mike really needed a break - their 16 year old is giving them a run for their money. Same old story, lives with her mom, disses her dad - dresses, talks and behaves completely inappropriately and with no respect for herself or others and makes no apologies to whoever she steps on. Sound familiar? It was oh too close to home for Dave and I. The similarities were uncanny. I'm so glad Jack wasn't there to witness her behavior (or her manner of dress, for that matter!) - she's so impressionable right now. Y'know, I have to say. I'm glad she's got a positive role model in her big sister Sam - it could be worse. Anyway, Saturday sent my BP soaring. Dave was off to a golf outing and I jumped in the car to take Luke to karate in Toledo and, nothing. No click, no lights, nada. Seems someone playing around with the CD player left the key on. Boy, I was pissed. I was supposed to be back to church by noon with my River Girls to rehearse for the family picnic. I stole Sam's jeep (have I thanked God lately for our new daughter?) to get to church, practiced with the girls then got shang-hied into helping prepare for the community picnic. Poor Bill's only helper bagged out at the last minute and he had no one to help. I ran Livvy home, did some shopping for the picnic, went back to the church and helped out. We used the jeep to move stuff to the big tent and Jackie made signs. Poor Jax, she so wanted to stay home all day after being away at camp all week. She made her disappointment very apparent - as usual. She sang very well and got a few kudos from some of the professional musicians that were in attendance. Livvy and Amber both did solos as well and were, of course, awesome. Once again, whupped. I don't know what's keeping me going at this point. Sunday, the VBS kids were doing the service. So guess where I was bright and early. Yep, back at it again. It went off (almost) without a hitch. We had trouble locating the slide show with the week's pictures, but I finally found them and changed the end of the service...sort of. We were all in a panic. After church, back to Hiram, Ohio, this time with the Luke-meister. We dropped him off about 3:30 then headed to Ashtabula to drop Sarah off with Grandpa. Each kid gets a week with dad each summer, and we'd better step it up before the summer is over! Sarah was so excited. This is her first time away with Grandpa. I'm sure she'll be fine, not so sure about Grandpa though. Haley was disappointed that she couldn't come back to spend some time with the Jack, but maybe we can do something before school starts.
My official WARN date is September 15 - but the PM told me somewhere around October 1 will be my last day. Dave is more excited about me not working than I am. For sure I can get more done around the house. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for an anal-retentive quality professional if I want one. Quality jobs are so fleeting career-wise, so contract work is the way to go in that arena, for sure.
This week, I have only Jack and Sam - Sam and I will be converting the den to a room for her and cleaning up Luke's room and putting it back together for him when he comes back. He's been wanting his room back for a while and I think Sam is feeling a little guilty. No worries though, we have plenty of room.
I suppose I'll do some work today. I haven't been on line much. I'm getting so sick of our dial up - it's just pissing me off. How archaic, eh? The library has wireless, so I can just go park there with my laptop. The kids will like that, too. OK, work. Ri-ight.
My official WARN date is September 15 - but the PM told me somewhere around October 1 will be my last day. Dave is more excited about me not working than I am. For sure I can get more done around the house. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for an anal-retentive quality professional if I want one. Quality jobs are so fleeting career-wise, so contract work is the way to go in that arena, for sure.
This week, I have only Jack and Sam - Sam and I will be converting the den to a room for her and cleaning up Luke's room and putting it back together for him when he comes back. He's been wanting his room back for a while and I think Sam is feeling a little guilty. No worries though, we have plenty of room.
I suppose I'll do some work today. I haven't been on line much. I'm getting so sick of our dial up - it's just pissing me off. How archaic, eh? The library has wireless, so I can just go park there with my laptop. The kids will like that, too. OK, work. Ri-ight.