Our Birthday Girl

Ever since my kids have become teens, it's been hard to buy gifts for them. Especially the boys. But there have been times I have struck out with Melissa as well. 

But not this year!!

I made a deal with a friend of mine who knits. (Or crochets...I can't tell the difference...) I would make her a quilt if she made Melissa a mermaid blanket. 

Melissa was very happy!!

Here's the quilt I made in the deal: 

But her other gift actually brought Melissa to tears! First the back story...she really wanted to go sky diving. Yep. Jump out of a perfectly good airplane. 

Drew and I just couldn't pay for that..,nope. Not gonna do it. 

Instead we're buying her a plane ride ticket to see her best friend from Guam who now lives in St. Louis. 

She was totally thrilled!!!

(She also enjoyed getting money from several family members - money is always a good choice with her!)

End of the Weekend

This weekend went about how I thought it would...

....we all got to sleep late Saturday morning (which is the BEST day to sleep late)

....we watched Benjamin play soccer (he got no goals, but did have some great passes)

....my college team lost (which I was pretty sure would happen)

....my NFL team lost (which we did NOT get to watch)

...I did get a great Sunday afternoon nap (which is the BEST day to nap!)

...my Sunday night New Believers' Class went well (I am co-teaching for the first time and LOVE IT!!!  We're using new curriculum and we're so enjoying the this set of kids - great bunch!)

But one thing happened late this evening that I DIDN'T think would happen - our renters in old house on the East Coast decided to renew their lease instead of moving out. YEAH!!! Thank you, Lord!! We are so happy! And love how it's off our list....well...for now...we're now hoping and praying  that when they do move out the market will be back up as we might try to sell it. 

End of the Week

The end of the week was very welcomed.  Thursday was so frustrating....and that was before I even got to work.  I realized earlier this week that the doctor back in July at Benjamin's annual visit didn't give him more than one inhaler of his asthma medicine. Usually we get enough for a whole year.

What doctor only gives one inhaler to last a year???!! 

So, I called on Monday to get the prescription renewed and the nurse called me back on Wednesday as I was driving back from helping my parents. I almost went by the pharmacy then, but a nap was calling my name loud and clear.

First thing Thursday was to swing by the main pharmacy on the base  take care of this....but I realized that only one med was taken care of, but not the asthma one. I tried to take care of it then and there, but it was taking too long and I had to leave for work.

I was so frustrated!! 

Then I went to work.  (I do enjoy my job, but waiting around for people is not my best forte.  But the right people showed up and payroll was taken care of.)

Today we went back to the problem of Ben's meds... After a call to the pharmacy, I had to call family practice. Again.  Late today a nurse called me back  She is just as baffled as I am.  She said she talked to the doctor and he agreed to approved the inhaler. But when she went to check on it after I called again, she saw that he cancelled the order. And of course, he was gone for the weekend when she realized this. 

urgggg..

Good thing Ben has enough for the weekend.

She'll deal with it first thing Monday morning.  Still it just doesn't make sense that the doctor this summer didn't get us enough meds for a whole year.

But we did have some good news today - Melissa got her official acceptance letter from her first choice of colleges.  Well....actually, her only choice....she had no back-up plan...not that she needed one.  So, next year she'll be off to Ole Miss....following in her parents' footsteps. 

We're ending the day with magic.  We typically go out for dinner on Friday nights, but Drew worked late...and liked what I cooked for the kids, so we ate at home.  Now we're watching magic shows on the DVR.  There's several magic shows on TV now and Drew loves them all. He watches a trick then rewinds it so see how it was done.  For the most part he can figure the trick out.

Tomorrow is all about sleeping late.  And the start of rec soccer....I'm sure it'll be close to 100 degrees on that field....but Benjamin is looking forward to playing.  I'll be the one covered in sunblock and sitting under an umbrella.

My View

This has been my view for the last 24-hours. It's the view from my dad's hospital room. 

Mom took him to the doctor's on Monday because he was coughing, wheezing, sleeping too much. The doctor wanted him to see his cardiologist, but he was too busy and so, to the ER they went. Where he was admitted to a room. 

And when I changed my schedule and made arrangements for the kids (because of course Drew is out of town!) & came over. 

They ended up changing some of his medicine. As of now we think his echo is clear -which is great news! (But the echo has not been read officially.) 

The doctor has told us that we can go home - much to dad's joy. Hopefully, all the discharge papers will be processed fast. But it's a hospital. Nothing fast really happens. 

Fall

It's currently 86 degrees with the heat index of 96. 

Fall feels very far away. 

But I bought my first pumpkin today. I'll keep it on my counter for a week or two, then cook it. I gave a great pumpkin roll recipe. But I so need some cooler temps. 

Downtown Issues

The main problem with my job being located downtown is parking. Our building has a small courtyard in the back off the alley where we can get three cars into. And up until last month we could park in an empty lot two doors down from us. 

Then the lot got new owners. Who put in a chain across the opening totally blocking anyone from parking in there. Actually, one of my co-workers got locked in the lot!! Her husband came with a crow bar or something and busted her out!!!! Crazy. Not gonna park there! 

So, for several days I parked on the street and feed the parking meter money. But you can only be in the same spot for two hours, then you have to move to a different spot or risk getting a ticket. 

After doing that for several days, I gave up and started to park two and half blocks away at one of the large parking garages owned by a casino. 

So...yea...looks like I spend my days at a casino. 

I've actually enjoy the short walk....of course, I wonder how much I'll enjoy it when the weather turns colds. And rainy. 

 I get to see all sorts of things on my short downtown walk. Like this relic from the past. It's missing a few pieces...and looking a little worn and tired. 

My Empty Driveway

Tonight my driveway is empty....for the last month my driveway had a nice blue car parked there. But today was the day for William to return to college for his second year. 

I think he was excited....but William doesn't show much emotion unless it's anxiety....or irritation at me. 

One thing we both were upset with is we learned the "friend" that asked him to be his roommate  decided to get an off-campus apartment.  And didn't tell him until William text today...as we were moving in... I felt bad for William.  

But praying that he'll find new friends and even build stronger ties to the people he met last year.

His dorm room this year is in close to his old building- pretty central to everything.  I did get to meet two of the three new roommates.  These two are older, but seemed nice.

May he have another great year.

Books, Books, Books!

This summer I have taken a dive in the reading.  In June I came across a new author at my library, Karen E Olson.  I ended up reading her books in reverse order. At the library I found her newest books, Hidden and Shadow. This new series of her is about a computer hacker.  They are very good!!  Then I read her second series about a tattoo artist in  Las Vegas that has a knack for stumbling into murder scenes. I again found this series very entertaining.   I didn't really know a lot about the tattoo world, since I don't have any tattoos or any plans to get one. So, a look into this world  was interesting.  Then I read first series Olson wrote.  Well...hmm...yea.  Not as good as the two newer ones. It was about a forty year old single women who was a newspaper reporter.  I read the first book, but really didn't like the language, but thought it was get better. It didn't.  I started the second book of the series, but within a few pages the language was just as bad.  So, I didn't complete the book nor started the third of the series.

I know myself.  I don't want to say  cuss words, but I know myself.  If I hear them in tv shows or read them in books, they get in my head. If they are in my head, then they WILL come out in my mouth! Because of this, I really try to avoid books and shows with bad language.  Just not worth it .

This summer I have, also, read the Bible through with an on-line group. We started June 1 and finished by the end of August. Yep! That's fast.  We didn't stop and get bogged down by the parts that we didn't totally understand.  We wanted to get the over-arching story of God's redemption plan. This is the fastest I have read through the Bible.  It took about 30-45 minutes every day.  Most days I did my reading in the morning, but there were a few days where I had to read a little at a time through out the day.

In the past week or so I have read a series by Susan May Warren - her Deep Haven series. I found that I read two of the books in the past.  Each of these books can stand on their own in that they don't give away too much of the other story lines. I really think she wrote better as the series went along.  My favorite books were the books 4 (My Foolish Heart), 5 (The Shadow of Your Smile) and 6 (You Don't Know Me).  I had read book 6 several years ago and just realized that it went with this series. (Book 2 Tying the Knot was the other book I had read before.) Warren is a Christian writer and in each of these books, the characters dealt with issues of faith.

Last week I also read the first in a series by Ronie Kendig, also, a Christian writer. This series has military members as a theme. I waiting for the second book to be available through my library.  While the book (Digitalis) was enjoyable, there were a few parts that were just not realistic. Entertaining, but not realistic....sort of like some of the James Bond or Jason Borne movies that are out in the theaters now.

All of this reading means that I have not watched a lot of tv....mainly because, there's not a lot of good new stuff on the tv during the summer.  Also, this summer I worked on a photo album project and a quilt that's almost done. I try to quilt at least an hour most days.  The quilt I working on now just needs the binding added....so...it should be done this week....hopefully....unless I find more books to read!