'Tis the season

Grant, 8th grade.
Check out the shiny new tuba.

What you wear when it's Hat Day

On the trail this fall evening

Gary's braced and reminding Scooter to sit as we come up on a deer.

Grant doing his SmartMusic

I wish there was some way to convey what this sounds like in this house. Tuba fills it to the ceiling.

And we have tall ceilings.

What little brothers are good for

Mama and two babies on the trampoline

Well, not really but they were wanting to this morning.

A proper tea party

Requires an accent, a book, a purse, tea, capes, and snacks, in case you didn't know.

Ice cream boy

Sam has to create a poster for school that tells about him. We thought this picture was a necessity.

Oops, there you are

The two truck pictures weren't supposed to be posted. I thought I was emailing them to my gmail so Grant could print them for a school project. We couldn't figure out why they weren't showing up.


Diane Gill
diane.gill67@gmail.com

Dad truck

Snoogle45

And another thing….

I just took Grant to the bus stop.  Two other junior high boys were standing there so he just wanted me to go on and not have to be with his mommy. 

I understand that. 

But as I left him, I felt weird.  He’s now a really big kid, but I couldn’t help but worry what if some crazy person ever tried to harm him.  And then I told myself he looks pretty darn intimidating for a thirteen year old.  But still that wasn’t enough.  I swear, Moms never stop worrying. 

And then I saw it.  One of our big small town police cars heading down the street.  Not in any fast pursuit, just passing through.  I waved him over and gave him a big smile and told him my name and that’d we’d just moved in and how much I appreciated the job he was doing.  He said that’s what they do in the mornings as kids are headed off to school:  they cruise around the schools and the bus stops and neighborhood streets.  

I just love this town.

Back to school 4

Third stinking grade

Back to school 3

Fifth grade

Back to school 2

Eighth grade

Back to school

Sophomore

To fill in the blanks a bit

So, yeah, there’s a big obvious gap in posts here from May to late July.  That was a time of complete chaos and despair, to put it mildly.  Our house/farm had been on the market for three-four months and all the showings were getting very tiring and we’d only had one offer and it was a joke that drug on too long.  The weather was day-in and day-out gloomy and wet beyond wet.  I felt completely desperate for something to change. 

Everyone in our family was miserable.  Neither Gary or I were sleeping at night and that effect quickly trickles down to everyone living under the same roof.  His job stress was overtaking everything.  Our home situation stress was overtaking everything.  It didn't feel as though there was much hope of escaping.  It was really a rough time and I can’t even explain it all here, and don’t want to really, but in a nutshell, life was not good.  Not for any of us.  : (

And then all of a sudden we got a new offer in June from a couple that had spent thirty minutes at the house and they wanted a 3-week closing and we were so ready we said sure and countered back and forth a few times and came to an agreement and then had to deal with more inspections that I ever imagined.  Chimney/wood furnace, well water, septic, termite, mold, radon, electrical, structural—dang VA loan.  We hit some major bumps and it felt like I fell into a sinkhole the size of Florida with the most stressful period of life I’ve ever experienced.  Despite all the hard effort, the original closing didn’t happen but, amazingly, it only took 4 weeks.  Unfortunately, Gary was out of town for three of the four weeks this all was happening and I felt as though I had the weight of the world on me, but finally in the end, we made it out alive, thanks to our supportive family (that’s you, lovely parents and sisters!), always there for us every time. 

We packed and scrambled and lifted and moved, pushing on for hours beyond what we thought our bodies could.   What would I have done without our two teenage boys?  Their physical strength and willingness to work hard made it possible.

Our dream house was still there waiting patiently for us, thank goodness, and finally, we get to open a new chapter, heck, a new book and everything’s so much better. 

We have moved into a house that fits us and now we have a simple life back in town with comfortable space to breathe and relax and experience quiet inside and outside and it really gives us a chance to feel good about each other again.  

And we have super speed unlimited Internet—woohoo!….

She’s ba-ack!

What rainy days are good for

Library day

Definitely one of the best perks of moving back into town

Pizza on his face, bandana on his head

Sam cracks me up. He's tried all kinds of fashion styles today for some reason. Earlier when Ross dropped by and Sam was wearing pants but was shirtless except a leopard trimmed vest, he asked, "Siegfried?"

Watching the spotted fawns from our deck

Sweet supper entertainment until ruined by Scooter.

Belly up to the bar, boys

Breakfast.

Yesterday, frankly, I was about to choke her

and then today she not only acts angelic but looks it, too.

Another thing I'm enjoying at this new place

It's clear, beautiful water now. Hard to imagine 9 days ago it was full of year old tadpole grossness. You worked your magic, for sure, Miss Karen. Thank you!

Good morning, brightest house I ever lived in

And this is facing west even. Makes me happyhappyhappy and I'm loving this place!

Guess who had a solo

At tonight's band concert. Unfortunately, I couldn't see him from my seat but Caroline scooted over and took this shot for me. I could clearly hear him though, and he was so good. Hard to imagine he is just a freshman, just fourteen years old.

Catching Up

I was just downloading some pictures and realized lots of things have been happening and some day, like next month, I’ll probably have no memory of most of it, so I better document.

We had lots of water last week.  More than we’d ever had in the three years we’ve lived here.  Goshen Road was underwater at the bend and the bus couldn’t make the regular route so it really complicated getting the kids to school and back home for a few days.  It actually got over the road completely at the bridge.  I took these pictures before it peaked. 

Anywho, it was big water. 

This is the easement on Thursday night.  We got the canoe out. 

This is just a handful of days after we worked to dig a few ditches to help drain water out of the woods.  Irony, huh?

I may or may not have gotten wet when trying to exit the canoe, experiencing the classic legs-spreading-apart with one foot on the bank and one foot left in the boat to the point of having to fall in.  My most favorite kind of funny video is not so amusing when the old lady is me and Gary is yelling “Bring your legs together” and the muscles just won’t do it anymore. 

Plus, we had just seen a giant snapping turtle. 

And this is at the easement on Saturday.  You would never imagine the temperature was just 53 degrees was since these yahoos were soaked from playing and swimming around in it. 

Isn’t this like a Bigfoot sighting picture?  haha

  

It was a beautiful day.  See what I mean?

 

And just a few days after having snow flurries.  This year’s weather has been so crazy, but it seems to me to be more than just this year.  Just especially crazy lately with highs of 80s and then freezing the next day. 

Here’s Tex sunning in the Gator.  

We got the canoe out again and this is our neighbor Paul with Gary. 

All this was later in the day after the two oldest went on a 15 mile bike ride with Gary and the other scouts, and the two littlest kids went to the zoo with Ross.  What did all-alone Mom do? 

Hit a couple yard sales and then went to Zumba, a perfect Saturday morning if you ask me.

 

 

This was taken at the Arts Center in town earlier this month.  Exactly the kind of thing I don’t want to ever forget!  Sam’s artwork was chosen as a featured student and we were invited to view it at the gallery.  Soo cool, huh?!  We were so proud of him. 

 

[Wish I had a shot without the reflections in the glass.] 

It was done with oil pastels and water colors.  It reminded me of when I got Grant oil pastels for Christmas one year because he was making such great artwork. 

Speaking of Grant, no recent pics of him.  He was laid up sick for several days this past week, but getting better every day.  He can’t wait to get caught up on his hair cut.

Don't look now, but there's a cowboy

Spotted coming out of the library Sunday afternoon. Must say, not that common a sighting in this town. But he's proud and that's all right!

Sorry, I Really Can’t Shut Up About It

So, today I’m back to a regular Monday morning schedule and  : (  !  One sick kid, one running late kid, one kid missing her re-do homework that teacher sent a note about Friday and I saw the note 5 minutes before departure this morning.  And I fixed an unneeded lunch since today is hot dog day, but I failed to look at the menu.  So off to the doctor soon and getting proper postage for the taxes to be mailed off and I’ve been awake since 2 am and it’s raining and… my mind is still here:

Plane rides are still so thrilling for me.  I love the sensation in general and whoa, the window views.  And getting served an icy drink of my choice.  Love it!

So back to thoughts of going to San Diego and all its perfection.  We had a fun sporty car and drove over to the island of Coronado which we both fell for.  You can tell this is sunset time with all the orangeness.

Gary loved the clean quaintness of Coronado and I loved the aroma in the air, well, except right at the beach.  That had a fishy smell and wow, some unusual seaweed in comparison to what I’ve seen on Florida beaches.  I wish I had taken picture of the odd stuff.   This is a Google image I found and it wasn’t exactly like this but kinda.  Brown and bulbous and like a way-overgrown thing of weirdness.

But the smell of the flowers everyone had in their front yards had me going.  Gary said I reminded him of, ahem, Scooter, flitting around smelling all the plants.  I wish I could have bottled those scents.  I couldn’t even pick out specific scents from certain flowers, it was just the overall blend in the air.  Can you imagine living somewhere like that? 

Here at home our blend is burning trash, manure, and occasional cat pee so you understand my infatuation. 

And oh, the sunny days and nice breezes with a perfect air temperature.  Did I tell you I saw two insects during my whole stay and that was spending hours outside by the pool?

And oh, the ocean and its huge ships and crashing waves and wow.  Back to more Coronado talk.

 

I don’t know why, well, yes, I do, but I felt like we were an Amish couple visiting California.  I felt so pale white and non-Californish amongst all the buff and tan runners on the beach, and everywhere you looked, but it didn’t hamper our adventure.  We got in the water and got our jeans wet with one big wave and yet walked on in to the ritzy Del Coronado Hotel for a little looksy.

 

   

There was sand art on the street. So cool.

We had a fun bite to eat at a Mexican place called La Salsa and called it a night.  Our second night to go out, Gary fell asleep as soon as he finished work at 7 pm so that was it.  That was ok.  I never knew until tagging along just how hard the work is while on travel.  He’d be up at 4am to deal with things going on back in the office in St Louis and then worked on the Pacific time until the day was done.  Long, long days.  But so glad I got to go along.

One last comment… I had earlier said I’d only experienced two locations in California, and now I have been to San Diego twice and Los Angles twice.  I know which I’d pick to return to and it’s not the brown smog covered LA as seen here from my plane window on our connecting flight.  The smog even hung over the ocean.  That was a bummer to see, but I still have great memories of San Diego.