The Life of a Recalled Toy

A bunch of Polly Pocket toys were recently recalled (little magnet that can fall out). And guess what, we had a few of those sets. So I told the girls and we started gathering them up. And now they are the favorite toy! Do I keep them? They are pretty safe around my girls, they aren't going to put something like that in their mouth. I'm afraid though, that once they do finally get tired of playing with them that I'll forget about the recall and donate it somewhere, putting lives in jeopardy!! OK, maybe not so much.

You know the phrase "don't know what you've got until it's gone"? I've been having some "didn't know I'd not had it until I had it again" moments. Like last night. We had lightning! I grew up terrified of it (OK, actually I was terrified of fire; didn't help that 4th of July when we were at the neighbors and Bert said "oh, looks like that one hit your house") but I really enjoyed watching it last night. You don't get that kind of streak lightning in Western Washington very much. Another thing I didn't realize is absent on the west side of the state: magpies. Yup, those big black and white birds that are all over the place here.

I spent my first two school days doing pretty much nothing. Today I should probably do something. Time to go return things at Staples, go to the Post Office, and and and.....who knows what!

National Waffle Week begins Sunday!

Back to School!!

Today was Day 2 of the new school year for the Rawls girls. Yee-haw! Justin was able to go into work a little later yesterday so he could be around for their first morning. I drove the girls to school and they took the bus home. Sounds like it was a good first day! For the first time in three years, Audrey did not state that "snack" or "lunch" was her favorite part of the school day! It was music instead.

Audrey made some new friends. But in typical first grader fashion, she didn't know their names. Emma said she didn't meet anybody. Today though, she came home and said she'd made two friends!! Both girls like their teachers and seem to be adjusting well to a new school and town.

I'm sure you're wondering how I did this morning getting them on the bus. I appreciate your concern.... The bus came early. Not super early, but before I had started a look-out. (the bus drives up the hill into our neighborhood, then stops at our house on the way back---just fine for watching the bus come and then heading out to wait) Luckily the bus driver called me to see if he'd be picking up the girls. So now I'll be looking out earlier. But....Audrey got off the bus today and said the bus would be ten minutes late tomorrow. Okaay....in the morning? afternoon? both?? Guess we'll find out tomorrow. I'm hoping that I can keep up with this new schedule, if for no other reason than to look at Kristi and say "Ha!". :) hee hee hee.

I watched Akeelah and the Bee today. Holy cow, did I bawl or what??? Was I supposed to cry like that, or was I overly emotional? Whatever the reason, it was a good movie. Glad I went ahead and watched it instead of returning it tonight unwatched. All thanks to Brian and his blog "Word Daze"!

If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers. ~Edgar W. Howe

How true is that??

Similarities in books

The Worthy was about fraternity hazing.

The Mangler of Malibu Canyon had beheaded bodies.

Size 14 Isn't Fat Either has a body without a head, and there's a teaser about fraternity hazing.

Anyone else sensing a theme here??


"Off with his head!"
--From King Richard III (III, iv, 76)

Waverly Cemetery Photos

I emailed some of my photos of the Waverly Cemetery to Grave Addiction and they were posted on today's update. Grave Addiction Update Look for number 15!

I found the pictures!

Emma's having fun tubing on Hayden Lake.

Audrey has fun too!

Here's my new computer background. I love old cemeteries! This one is in Waverly--you can see my dad or brother's combine in the background.

I just kinda liked how this one turned out. Too bad I never remember to turn off the date stamp on my camera! grrrrrrr


I'm glad I finally found these pictures. I think I need some computer help. Like making sure everything is where it should be and accessible to me. Maybe someday....

This is not going to be good for me.....

....or maybe it will. I called the bus garage yesterday to find out what time and where the bus will pick up the girls. They catch the bus down the street at (ok, give me a minute.....breathe deeply.....sip tea....pop a Xanax....ok, maybe not the Xanax, but they always do that in books!) 7:12 a.m. And I thought I got up early today when I stumbled out of bed at 7:30!!! Justin said something to the effect of "Golly, we can get up at the same time and have coffee together." Yeah right. It's going to be both of us in bed, staying in as long as possible, and then when one of us thinks "well, fine, if he/she isn't going to get up I guess I will so I can get in the shower right away" that's when the other one will get up out of bed (because he/she had been thinking of it mere seconds before the other one) and into the shower. I suppose I should start practicing this whole "get up early thing". I have a little time.... School starts Wednesday and I'll drive them that day.

Last night we attended the New Student Orientation at Grant Elementary School. It was great to go and see the school, find out about some of the programs, meet the principal and the intern principal and the counselor. Mr. Garcia, the counselor, is a kick in the pants. Sounds like he is extremely kid-focused and fun. He says when it snows he heads out to the field and helps kids build forts, he teaches students to sing the WSU Fight Song to teachers who are Husky fans, all sorts of fun stuff! Last night Justin said that Mr. Garcia's job sounded awfully tempting...(Justin's having a really stressful week at work; yeah, maybe even more so than usual)

So I mentioned the intern principal...Guess what. I went to high school with him. Brian Ellis, he was a year ahead of me. It's funny to realize that in a town this small (by some standards, although it's fairly good-sized to me) there are three of us who graduated from Liberty High School in the 80s/90s.

The lack of household organization is starting to drive me batty. I'm still using a card table for my computer (alas, that means no puzzles), my printer isn't even hooked up, and I have a corner filled with craft supplies and no place to put them. Yet. Add to that the mess of toys, and the boxes of games and puzzles that are still homeless. I shoved most of our movies into a three drawer bin, but there are still others waiting for placement. The good news is that it is no longer sweltering up here in the computer/TV/play room. I told the girls that we may soon be able to rent movies---and actually watch them! Oh, seating would be nice up here too. I reclined on pillows and watched a movie the other night (Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas, it was really quite good) until my buttocks fell asleep!

I updated my "Books I've Read" list the other day and realized I'd forgotten one. This is one of the many times I've wished the library kept a record of books I've checked out. I can't remember the title or author. And I tried Googling keywords and doing the same at NovelList, but came up with nothing. So if you know of a book about: a woman who owns a winery; the theft of a takapu (an endangered bird from "New Zealand"); it's a romance and a mystery; let me know the title! I think the character(s) have names that can have double meaning like "Trouble" or something (like the guy is Damien Trouble and the title is "Playing with Trouble", y'know, something kind of punny). Need to add the book I started this morning after staying up a couple hours last night to finish one. And then....I couldn't sleep!! I considered starting another book, but although reading might help some people fall asleep, it doesn't work that way with me!

Enough procrastinating! Time to pay bills, clean the house, shop for groceries (maybe even figure out dinner), and shop for school supplies and a desk and other storage. We're almost done with the school supply hunt, but for some reason I cannot find loose leaf paper at Wal-Mart. Isn't that something that is usually on pallets and set in the aisle right by the other school supplies?? Not in Ephrata I guess. Oh, I have laundry to finish too. Guess I have my day set!

The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up at seven-thirty in the morning feeling just plain terrible. ~Jean Kerr, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, 1957

Oh my goodness!!! I am "average, healthy, and well-adjusted"!!!!

I have a "carpe diem" mug and, truthfully, at six in the morning the words do not make me want to seize the day. They make me want to slap a dead poet. ~Joanne Sherman

OK, had to pay homage to one of my top three movies of all time!!!!

But I'd gotten used to the heat.....

And now we're having highs in the low 80s? Brrrrr! OK, maybe not brrrr, per se, but it still doesn't feel the same. Guess that means summer is ending.

I took the girls to their new school yesterday. They'll be attending Grant. First thing I saw when we walked to the door was a flyer announcing the New Student Orientation on August 22nd. Of course I'm rarely aware of the actual date....so I panicked. Did we miss it? I hastily flipped open my Anne Taintor Engagement Calendar and was thrilled to note that we had not missed it. It's tomorrow night. Whew! The secretary and counselor were extremely helpful and very nice. As a bonus we met a first grade teacher in the hallway---won't know until Wednesday night if she's Audrey's teacher though. School starts next Wednesday.

The weekend before last we went to Silverwood Theme Park. And get this.....Justin took Friday off!!!! He even stopped answering his cell phone when I gave him the withering look of wifely disgust. We all went on Timber Terror---one of the big wooden roller coasters. Audrey and I vowed to never go on another one again. My shins still hurt! I felt like I was being pulled out of my seat, so I forced my legs under the car in front so that I could stay in and then clutched Audrey so she wouldn't fall out either. Yes, I know that we wouldn't really fall out. But that didn't stop me from being totally neurotic about it! Sheesh. Emma loved the roller coaster and she and Justin went on another one, twice. This one was metal and went upside down. They both said it was much smoother than the wooden one and easier to go on. Maybe next time. Yeah, right!

After Silverwood we stayed in Hayden with David and his friend Hazel. Wonderful hospitality!! And now we have a new obsession.....finding lakefront property. We don't need much---just some water access. I could sit on a dock and read all day. Aahhhh.... The girls wore their life jackets and swam near the dock. We took the boat out and the girls had a blast tubing. Yes, I do have pictures, but I seem to have experienced a large problem with my photos/computer today. Hopefully I'll get it figured out soon and can post some pictures.

Last week the girls and I went to Spokane to shop for school clothes. And get this....Emma got her ears pierced! Yeah, I know, I always said 12 or 13, but for some reason I changed my mind. I'm allowed to do that, right? OK.

I've raised a couple of city girl hicks. They were afraid of the combines when we went out to see my dad and Wes. But then at the mall they wanted to ride the escalators because they were so exciting! Funny kids.

Wes was harvesting right across from the Waverly Cemetery and I took some really great pictures--including some black and whites that I'm quite happy with. But again there's that whole Kodak/pictures disappearing. Gotta work on that. I was going through those pictures to send to the GraveAddiction website when it all went kaplooey.

On our way to the field Audrey said "I just saw a chicken cross the road! Or maybe it was a cat." Oooookaaaayy... On our way back I pointed out two pheasants to the girls. Audrey said, "That's what I saw!" Oh dear. A career in zoology is not in that girl's future.

Oh, Audrey also has a very cute new haircut! I was planning on posting a picture, but y'know....

I guess that's about it for now. Time to feed the girls and get them to bed (thier new bunk beds that is). We need to get in the habit of going to bed earlier. A lot earlier. But it's hard to make those changes.



Are you ready? August 22nd is Southern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day!!!

Scouting.....

So if you don't hear from me for a few days, you may want to check Moses Lake. The girls and I are going to go over there after library today. I have no idea where I'm going! I found out yesterday that Wal-Mart here in town is out of kids lifejackets. Hence the need to travel. blech Moses Lake feels like one of those towns that's built at an angle. I don't deal well with that.

Wish me luck!

This week is Don't Wait! Celebrate! Week

Is Ephrata "home" now?

It's been a while since I've written anything here. Been a while since I updated my list of books too. I think I'm forgetting one after Pretty is as Pretty Does. By the way, don't read that particular book. A reviewer on the front cover called it "funny" but for some reason I didn't pick up a lot of humor in a book about a vain, self-centered young woman who has an affair less than a month after she gets married.

I finally broke down and bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm feeling rather sad at not being able to look forward to another book. But what do you think? Will J.K. Rowling do a spin-off? Take another character from the book and turn it into an all new best-seller? And if she does, would I read it? Hmmmmm.

We're starting to get used to living in Ephrata now. The girls have made some friends. We've met a couple of neighbors and they are all very nice. School starts at the end of this month!! That will certainly make some huge changes. I need to find out when the class information comes out---y'know, find out what time school begins and ends, which school the girls are in (for sure), where and when the bus comes. All those minor issues!

Time to be productive. Ha ha ha ha ha!! OK, time to drink tea. How's that?

Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. ~Proverb

I miss my floors!!!!

So we've been here what, just under three weeks? And I am so missing my concrete and laminate floors! Carpet is so frustrating. Well, not carpet itself so much, but what gets on it. And so far we've had:

coffee
dog barf
sick dog poo
cat barf
child barf (multiple)
sick dog poo (again)

The girls and I just got back from Wal-Mart with a Bissell SpotBot. I'm just sittin' here while it cleans the sick dog poo from the upstairs carpet. One spot is done (and appears to look fine) and I'm now hearing the beeps that stain number two is done. And now number three. After this I'll try it downstairs on the other stains too!

I've finished the first six books in the Harry Potter series. I'll be living in fear for the next who knows how long until I get to read the newest one. Why fear? I'm afraid I'm going to accidentally find out what happens in it! Childish, perhaps, but I really want to find out myself. Is Snape good or evil? Will Harry live? Will Tonks and Lupin have a double wedding with Bill and Fleur? Will Ron and Hermione finally confess their undying love for each other? So much to find out!!

Almost two. I should eat. But I really wanted to get these spots started first. Now I can eat!

Don't cook. Don't clean. No man will ever make love to a woman because she waxed the linoleum - "My God, the floor's immaculate. Lie down, you hot bitch." ~Joan Rivers

Harry Potter and the Joy of Reading

I'm almost done with Book 4 in the Harry Potter series! (thanks Barbara for giving them to me for Christmas) The final book is coming out soon. When I read the last one I wasn't able to enjoy it as much because I couldn't remember half of what had happened in the previous books! Not letting that happen again though. I'm doing my homework! Good thing the girls love to hang out in the pool so I can read. And read. And read.....

Well, here we are in Ephrata! Yup. Most everything is unpacked and quite a bit is put away. We even have some pictures up on the walls! And a bunch more leaning against walls that we might want to hang them on. It's not a quick and easy process y'know! I'm trying to do away with as many knick-knack thingies. I have great shelving in the guest room closet for candles, so that helps. I no longer have to figure out the safest way to get them into the cupboard when I don't want to display them. One thing that is bugging the heck out of me is the absence of my scale and bedside clock!! My newest theory is that it accidentally got put in storage in the other house (kind of like the two boxes of books that were supposed to go into storage and instead showed up here).

Of course just because I no longer live in Bow, doesn't mean I can't catch you up on what's going on there:
OK, funny thing happened this morning! Shock and surprise the J's water well went out again! I know, I know, don't ask! I have cursed all I can for the rest of the month in just a few short hours!
Anyway, I sat there in bed and thought, no biggie, I can go to the R's! So, off to the R's I go at 7:45 am shampoo and TP in hand (just in case you didn't leave any!).
It dawned on me just then that oh yes, O (house cleaner) was coming today, not to worry, she never comes before 9 according to Joy! 7:55 with a head full of soap, ding dong! Now I know I said earlier that I had sworn my share for the month but after that one, I felt I deserved to dip into August!
Luckily I left the bathroom door open so I shouted "Oh hi O! I'm one of Joys friends, I'll be out of here in 10 minutes!" Yea, like she had a clue as to what I just said! So, on my way out the door, thanking her under my breath for not calling the cops, I did laugh and say "your early today"! She laughed in her "I don't understand a word your saying so don't bother" look.
Add that to your blog!
Well, Nancy, don't mind if I do add that to my blog! I miss that neighborhood!!!!!

Tomorrow is Justin's birthday. Wow. That means a year ago we had the Hawg Roast. Now that was a good time! Of course I did a very very lousy job regarding Justin's birthday. Hopefully I'm doing better this year! (but without roasting a hundred pound pig in the ground)

Tomorrow I also get wireless internet. I can hear what you're thinking. "but, if she doesn't have internet then how can she be adding to her blog?" I'm using my laptop in the front room and very guiltily accessing the wireless feed from the neighbors. Fortunately that will end tomorrow! At least I hope it works....

Hopefully I'll have more to add soon. So far it's just been lots of heat, swimming, reading, and family here.

Do what we can, summer will have its flies. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

(July 10 is Don't Step on a Bee Day)

So how far behind am I?

I'm not even going to look. I don't want to know the date of my last blog entry. I know it's been a while! So, what's new, you wonder?

We're moving. It's officially official. Only a week and a half left here. And so much to get done! I really should be packing right now....

School is out. PTA is over for me. Well, not quite. I still need to type the minutes from the last general and board meetings. And get all the stuff to the new secretary. And get the website and book fair information to someone too.

That's really about it for now. Especially because I really need to be packing right now! Barbara came last week and got a ton accomplished. Now I'm trying to figure out what I can probably live without for the last week. The kitchen is almost completely done. I'm working on the computer/desk stuff next. I think. aarrgghhh!!!!

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. ~Olin Miller

At what point....

At what point during the filming of the movie Legally Blonde 2 do you think Reese Witherspoon said, "oh man, this is crap"? Not too long ago I bought a two DVD set: Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2. I'd seen the first one and been amused. I'd never seen the second one. Until tonight......

I really should have read a book instead.

A sequel is an admission that you've been reduced to imitating yourself. ~Don Marquis

But if they'd imitated themselves but had more Luke Wilson screen time, then we'd be OK.

Beauty Queen or Oompa Loompa??

Little Beauties: Ultimate Kiddie Queen Showdown. What the?????? Oh I loooove VH-1!! OK, these six year old girls have full make-up and wicked hair. They are wearing false eyelashes for goodness sake! Spray tans. $2000 dresses. Oh my goodness. So I'm watching this thing (Shear Genius is on in 15 minutes so I have to watch something)and I'm getting a bit freaked out. They don't look like girls. They don't quite look like women. What is it? Oh yeah, Oompa Loompas! But wait, what was that? A different look. Ahhh....a Who from Whoville.

Do you know what a flipper is? Fake teeth!! Yeah, 'cause heaven forbid a six year old not have a perfect full set of adult teeth. And yes, that is another $200 plus the $50 impression kit. Oh my gosh, did that mom just say her daughter needs "butt stick" to keep her six year old's cheeks in her bathing suit??? "I truly buhlieve in bribery", says another pageant mom. Well yeah, don't we all? But shhhh....we aren't supposed to admit it. So we have slutty six year olds and moms who are even frumpier than me. Blech.. Ready to find out how the parents, er, moms, get their girls all set for this event? Sugar!!!!! Pixie Stix!!! No wonder they need flippers.

Oh good. Shear Genius is on.

Against Him those women sin who torment their skin with potions, stain their cheeks with rouge and extend the line of their eyes with black coloring. Doubtless they are dissatisfied with God's plastic skill. In their own persons they convict and censure the Artificer of all things. ~Tertullian

Waiting for Gandalf

The wait is over! But alas, Gandalf is not his name. Instead, my brand new nephew is named Gustav Wesly. (I think. I kind of forgot to ask about the spelling and really can't remember how my grandpa's middle name--Gustav or Gustaf--was spelled.) But however it's spelled, Mom, Dad, Baby, and Big Sister are all fine. Yay!!!!

Wow. Two nephews in one week. My sister Kara left me a message that she has her son back. I couldn't understand part of the message, so need to call her and find out the details. Good news all around it sounds like!

Getting down on all fours and imitating a rhinoceros stops babies from crying. (Put an empty cigarette pack on your nose for a horn and make loud "snort" noises.) I don't know why parents don't do this more often. Usually it makes the kid laugh. Sometimes it sends him into shock. Either way it quiets him down. If you're a parent, acting like a rhino has another advantage. Keep it up until the kid is a teenager and he definitely won't have his friends hanging around your house all the time. ~P.J. O'Rourke

Mmmm....no title really.....

I wrote a great blog entry the other day. Pulitzer caliber! But you'll never get to read it, because my Internet Explorer decided to shut down. grrrrrr

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!!!!!

(that was for my sister)

So one thing I was writing about the other day is my newest televsion obsession. Yep, Shear Genius. It's a competition among hairdressers. They started out with twelve, and as of last night they are down to ten. They do two challenges each week. A "short cut" (which I thought the first week meant they were to design a short hairstyle, of course it irked me to see all these long hairstyles when I thought they should be short. I guess short just refers to the shorter amount of time they have to complete it.) after which they are ranked and the top stylist gets first pick of model for their next challenge. The elimination round. bwahahahaha! The first week the elimination was Hair Art. Last night they had models who showed up with a photo of a celebrity who's hair they wanted emulated. Some of it turned out good, some not so good. I feel like they need a third challenge in there. Or that the first one should have some more weight with regard to elimination. But that's just me. Until the execs at Bravo get in touch with me, I guess they'll just have to muddle through with what they have going now. sigh

Leavenworth Alefest is coming up. Yee-haw! Beer and brats! Come on good weather too! At least we are guaranteed good friends---that sure helps! Too bad some other friends of ours can't come too........(yeah, you know who you are)

Well, I've read a few of the 22 or so books I checked out from the library before they closed. Wonder how many I'll finish by May 21. Any guesses??

Nothing much else to say today.

Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself. ~Hubert de Givenchy, Vogue, July 1985

Finally---the second week of April!!!!

Why, you ask, am I so darn excited about the second week of April? Because this is the first week I've had in a while with nothing major happening. And it's likely to be the last week like that for a while too.....

Last week was Spring Break. So we just got over having an exchange student for two weeks on top of me helping with the teaching for that program, and now we're off to Spokane! Uh-uh, not so quickly! First, we buy a house. Yep, you heard (er, read) right, we bought a house. In Ephrata. Saturday morning we went to the house at 8am and by 10am we were writing up an offer. I'll keep you posted on the dates of the big yard sale!! The house is very cute. It's good-sized, but the way it's set up I'm not sure that all of our furniture will fit in it. And the girls will--gasp--share a room. They are OK with it. All we had to do was say the magic words: Bunk Beds.

After we bought the house we went to Colfax for my Granddad's memorial service. (my mom's dad) Very nice service with stories and a slide show. I swear in one of the pictures Granddad looked like Nicolas Cage---if he'd been cast in O Brother, Where Art Thou? that is. It's great to see all the family members that we never get to see anymore. When we were kids I'd see some of the cousins at the fair and Junior Livestock Show. Now it's only at weddings and funerals. Of course we heard the "we should get together at the lake" and "family reunion" phrases bandied about. We'll see what happens..... Guess it might be nice to move closer. We'll be two hours away instead of six.

The girls and I stayed with my mom until Friday morning. What a week! Andrew is still with his idiot father so we didn't get to see him, but I think we saw everyone else. My friend Amy had a baby last month so the girls and I went to her house for a couple of hours. The last time I saw her daughter was three years ago---in the hospital a day after she was born! It was great to see them. I'm so bad at keeping up with friends. I hope I redeem myself when we move!

Easter weekend we spent in Ephrata. We went to an Easter Egg Hunt in Moses Lake. Couldn't find one advertised in Ephrata, but found out the next day that there was one. Bummer. I think the girls had fun though. Emma got a prize egg and won a basket with a stuffed lamb and some candy. Justin's dad met up with us in Moses Lake for lunch and then we took him to see our new house. (the couple who we're buying it from are super sweet and very accommodating!) The girls and I left Sunday around 1pm. I was wiped out last night! However, that did not stop me from starting the puzzle I'd bought at a thrift store. It's a big mug of beer. We'll see how long it takes me to finish it.

Audrey has a doctor's appointment this morning so I'd better get her ready to go. Tomorrow I'll go to the library with a big list of books to check out. The library will close this weekend and then reopen in their new, big building in mid-May. So I figured I'd stock up. And it's less for them to move, right? So I'm being helpful.

There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place. ~Washington Irving

"I couldn't put up with it"

That phrase was going through my head tonight and I realized that there are different connotations regarding it. (or maybe I'm just sensitive to hearing more behind it....) It can come through as a positive--someone sees you as stronger than they are. Or as a negative--someone is wondering why the heck you put up with something (or someone) and why you don't do something about it.

Now that's nothing that is really bothering me. It's just something I was thinking of tonight. Yes, I have felt I'm the recipient of the "why isn't she doing something about it", but it's definitely not an issue that will bother me too much! (at least not tonight....)

So, what's been going on????
For the past two weeks I've been an Assistant Teacher for a group of Japanese girls. It was great fun!! I really enjoyed myself and felt like maybe I did an OK job. Yes, the lead teacher did rescue me on more than one occasion, but I wonder if I would have figured it out myself if she wasn't there. Y'know, all that nervousness around the expert thing.

We were originally going to host one of the students, but then she dropped out of the program. I figured that was a blessing! The girls arrived on a Thursday evening and on that Sunday morning I had a call from the program coordinator asking me if I'd take one of the students. Her host mother had been in an accident Saturday night. So we had Sanae living with us for a while. A good experience, but a surprise!

Last week our school hosted a tour from the Missoula Children's Theater. This is such a great program!! Two actor/directors arrive at the school on Sunday/Monday and at 4:00pm Monday they hold auditions for a play. Ours was The Jungle Book. At 6:00pm they announce the cast. Our school had 97 students try out. And there are parts for about 55 or so. On the following Saturday they perform the play two times. Yowza! Emma and Audrey both auditioned. Audrey got a part as a monkey. Emma wasn't chosen this year (last year she was a Magical Mexican Jumping Bean for Jack and the Beanstalk and two years ago was a flower in Tales From Hans Christian Andersen). It was a little tough for Emma to accept at first, but she was OK with it pretty quickly. So we had a busy week with that too!

Tomorrow morning we will take Sanae to Burlington to get on the charter bus with the other 12 students and their escort and head back to Japan. Well, to go to Disneyland for two days first.....Once again, it was a great experience, but it'll be nice to kind of relax for a while!

Justin found a house he likes. We'll look at it together this weekend. Damn that reality!!! I guess it could really happen. We could move to Ephrata for a while. I feel like Wile E. Coyote with a sign "Yipes". How weird is all this???

I'm tired and I loathe and despise getting up in the morning. We'll see how I do!

We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Write more

OK, so maybe if I write in this blog more consistently I won't just write when I'm feeling all moopy. (I watch way too much Kim Possible with the girls!) Not that I'm unmoopy now, but maybe a bit less so than yesterday.

No new houses in Ephrata. But there are now pictures on the MLS of my brother and sister-in-law's house. I have them on my list of "favorites" and was taken aback when I was scooting through them today and saw a picture of a house I didn't recognize. Well, that I didn't recognize from the Ephrata houses on my list that is.

My moopiness is making me feel like we should just go ahead and move. But we won't really know exactly what is going on until the end of April, so by then I guess we might as well stay here until school gets out. Or we could get rid of the dog and cat and rent in Ephrata now and then buy in April/May when we know what's going on. I just feel like I need to step away.

My life expectancy is 71 years of age. Too damn long if you ask me! I finally got around to reading Sunday's paper and there was an article in the US Weekend (or whatever it's called)on life expectancy. It listed a site to go to and use the life expectancy calculator. www.livingto100.com My expectancy could be even lower if I'd remembered my cholesterol levels.

There's a PTA meeting tonight so I need to make copies of the minutes from the previous meeting. That and work on publishing student's stories in Emma's class. Then it's off to the grocery store! I have been eating like crap for months and months. And I'm really craving vegetables right now. Let's see if I am able to buy veggies and actually eat them instead of letting them rot in the fridge. Maybe I should focus on frozen instead.....

Think I'll peruse a few recipes before heading out. Just enough time to do so it looks like.

There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward. ~John Mortimer

Blah blah blah

That's how I feel today. Blah. And I've been feeling that way a lot lately. I mean, more than usual! Not sure exactly what is happening with me, but will try to remember to take all my meds now. If only the time release (one a day) pill wasn't three times as expensive as the "try to remember to take three pills a day" generic version. Hopefully that will help. Hopefully something will help. Until then I will try to avoid people and situations that may put me into contact with people. Easy, right? Ha!

I updated my reading list again. I removed a bunch---thought I'd just keep 10 books listed at a time. I can't wait--the library bought You Suck by Christopher Moore. I can't wait to read it! Only 100 pages to go in Goodbye, Jimmy Choo until I can crack open You Suck. Sounds like it's a continuation of Bloodsucking Fiends. I just need to get my hands on a copy of Fluke and I will be all updated with Christopher Moore's books. Time to make another library request......

Not much going on. Or at least not much that I want to discuss. The 13 students from Japan will arrive next Thursday. We are no longer hosting a student (two dropped out of the program and one of them happened to be ours) but I'm still going to help teach. I'm nervous and excited. Fortunately there's a real teacher making the lesson plans--I just have to facilitate what she has put together. We'll be meeting this weekend to go over things and make sure the other teacher and I aren't too freaked out.

No new houses coming up for sale in Ephrata. Well, at least none that appeal to us. We looked at nine in one day and two of them have potential. We still have another month before all this is in writing, so there's no hurry. Maybe over spring break we'll take some time to look at some again---and maybe there will be more! Justin and I started talking more about one of the houses he liked. We discussed having him look at it again (as we were trying to figure out where this fourth bedroom listed is). I told him that it would pretty much guarantee that the owners receive an offer over the weekend. It's happened a couple of times. A house doesn't seem to be quite right, then we start discussing what we could do to it and when we call our realtor we find out that there's been an offer. Messes us up but helps the seller! Wonder if we could market ourselves somehow.....

Wonder if I'll take a shower today. I guess I should.

Many of us go through life feeling as an actor might feel who does not like his part, and does not believe in the play. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960