See Ya!

As much as Vance, Mckaylie and Noah have loved this aspect of our "summer house", I'm more than happy to say good-bye to all the little creatures that live here!

Cool Slideshows!

We're Movin', Movin', Movin'...........................

See ya next week...............................

Mary Engelbreit Monday

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

***Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Our Little Houdini............

We don't have a fenced yard here at our summer home, so when we put Nutmeg outside to do her stuff, we have to put her on a chain. We thought this was a good idea and she wouldn't ever have to be out there on it for very long. She showed us rather quickly, though, that she could get off the chain. She broke one collar and managed to get the other collar off her neck over her head. It didn't matter how snug we had it around her neck either, she would worm her way out of it. So, thinking that we are the more intelligent of the two species, we bought her a harness. This would work because she'd have to not only get her head out, but her two front legs and it fit snuggled right behind her from legs. That lasted all of about a day, seriously! We couldn't believe that she was getting out of the harness or figure out how. We decided to spy on her and see exactly how she was doing it. We put her out there on it and the watched her from inside the house. After she was done with her "business" (she'll stay on the chain to do that) she would pull the chain taut and slip right out of the harness, just like that. It didn't even look like it took much effort for her. She put her head down and manuevered her legs right out of that harness. So, we've concluded that we are not the more intelligent species or that Nutmeg is a little Houdini Dog. Either way, our house in Topsham will have a fenced yard and this will no longer be an issue.............one more week and we get the keys!

Not Liking This Part of Parenting..................

Chad and I sat in bed last night talking about Myshel graduating from high school in 3 years............and about college...................and about her leaving home...................and how we really aren't prepared for that....................It was a rather sobering discussion until I mentioned that there was still 3 years to get through, 3 years of teenager attitude, 3 years of hearing how unfair we are, 3 years of her fighting with her siblings, 3 years that include her starting to date..........................If we get through those 3 years, we might be more than happy to show her the door! We laughed and joked about it for awhile and then laid down to go to sleep. It was quiet for awhile and I whispered, "you know that's not going to happen, right" and he said, "yeah, I know".

School Registration and Heartbreak...........

Getting my kids registered in school here has been quite the ordeal. I'm not sure why is, either. I expected Myshe's registration to be a hum-dinger (I'll get into that later), but not the others. I went to register McKaylie for school and they sent me to the school superintendance office. I had to see which elementary school they wanted her to go to. I didn't even know there was more than one elementary school in Topsham. I guess I overlooked that one. So, if there's 2 schools shouldn't there be specific boundaries? Nope, I guess not. They have some boundaries, but aparently the base housing is pretty much down the middle so they just divide the kids there evenly. McKaylie will be going to Williams-Cone, that's not the school I first went to. This is fine, except for the fact that most of the other parents I've talked to in housing, have their kids going to the other school. I'm hoping McKaylie won't be the only kid in the neighborhood that they've sent to Williams-Cone.

Vance's school doesn't seem to have anyone working there for some reason. The first time we went, there was only the assistant principal, who didn't know anything about registration. He gave us the name and number of the secretary that was in charge of that. I called the number and only got a message saying that no one was in the office at that time. I finally got a different message last week that said she'd be back in the office the week of August 6th. Since I had a migraine the beginning of the week, I decided that I'd just go and register Vance the same day that we had an appointment at Myshel's school. We stopped in and there was one one there. The school was open. The office was open, but no one was to be found. I decided to try back again about an hour or so later. We found the principal there. She doesn't know much about registration either. WHAT???? She explained that her secretary just came back this week, but then took 2 days off again before the weekend..........she gave us the registration packet and the name and number of the same lady we got before and told us to give her a call next week, if that's not too much trouble. Uh, yeah, like I have a choice. So, maybe next week we'll get Vance reigstered.

Getting the paperwork and appointment set for Myshel was the easiest of the three. It's the actual appointment and class placement that we knew would be a pain. Because of the middle school that Myshel went to in Norfolk, she earned 6 high school credits, which makes her more than a Freshman, but not quite a Sophmore. Also Myshel was suppose to be put in honors courses, but they don't have those kinds of classes here. They only have the regular academedic classes and the AP (advanced placement) classes, which they wouldn't put her in because they require summer program work. And that's how the appointment went, they called her old middle school in Norfolk, they called the English advisor, they called the vice principal and on and on. They were actually quite nice about it and I think we all wanted to accomplish the same goal, which is go get Myshel in the right classes for her.

During all that, the question was raised to me, "do I want Myshel to graduate in 3 years?", which means she'd basically skip a year and start as a sophmore. I have to admit that my heart was saying--- NO, NO WAY, could we just go back to grade school and start over from there. This is my baby and I wasn't even thrilled about her starting high school in the first place and now they're asking me if I want her to skip a grade and leave my house even sooner????---

My heart and my head weren't on the same page, though, and luckily, my head won out. What came out of my mouth was, "Yes, we want Myshel to finish in 3 years if she can. We're here definitely for 3 years. We want her to finish before we leave." I think my heart broke a little just saying it outloud. We discussed her age, too. They were worried that skipping a year would make her the youngest in her class, which actually isn't the case. Myshel has a November birthday which means that she missed the deadline when she started school. She actually one of the oldest kids in her grade right now and skipping a year would put her with kids that are actually closer to her own age group. We finished up, planned her classes, which are mostly sophmore classes and a basically one freshman class. We were told that they'd have to decide about whether to consider her a freshman, or a sophmore and as soon as they knew, they'd call and let us know.

When we got home there was a voicemail message waiting. They're officially considering Myshel a sophmore and they have a plan laid out for her so that she can graduate in 3 years. We got what we asked for. I smiled when I told Myshel, but my heart was quite sad! 3 years is such a short time. I can't believe that my baby will be done with high school and ready to start college and be on her own in 3 short years. Why did I ask for that?!? Being a mom just kind of sucks, sometimes!

Great Give-away!

I found an exciting give away at Nifty Nicholson News. You can enter at 5 minutes for mom. They are giving away 37 inch LCD flat screen tv sponsored by Best Buy! How fun!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Just a Little Whine.......................

Last Wednesday, the kids came and got me and told me there was no water. I didn't think much of it because the water pressure in the house is terrible. I just assumed that the washing machine or something was running and they just weren't getting much through the faucet. (Are you getting a little glimpse into my life at our "summer house"???? just wait.....................) I went and checked around the house to see what was running and nothing was. So, I thought I'd better see what exactly my kids meant when they said "no water". And, to my completely frustration, there was NO WATER, none. I knew that Chad had taken the landlord's phone number with him to work the day before and guessed correctly that he still had it. That's ok, though, right, I just need to call Chad, yeah, that didn't work either, there was no answer! We had errands to run, so we headed to town and took care of them. We met Chad for lunch and he called the landlord about the "no water" situation. We ended up being in town until after the kids youth activities that night. When we got home, we had water, Yeah! We never did find out what happened.

So, no big deal, we were without water for one day and we weren't even home most of that day. On Saturday, we spent the day cleaning the house and working on some things that needed to get done. After dinner that night I was thinking about taking a shower when Chad came and told me to forget it. I thought the water wasn't working again, but it was just the hot water that wasn't working. Our water comes from a well out here and it's freezing cold all the time. We couldn't expect the kids to take their baths in the freezing water, especially when we couldn't bring ourselves to shower in it. We also couldn't bring ourselves to go to church on Sunday after spending Saturday working/cleaning with no shower, yuck! We also couldn't get ahold of our landlord. We'd have to wait until Monday for hot water..............................I am not a happy camper!

Chad went to work Monday morning, went to PT, and then came home after telling them that he had to get the water situation taken care of before his wife disowned him. He talked to the landlord and we got our usual answer, "we'll send some one out there". They actually did get someone to come out quickly and the first thing that he asked was, are you out of fuel? Our answer, "we don't know" and we didn't. Our utilities are included in our rent, it's not our responsibility to keep fuel in the tank! Besides, Chad had checked all the equipment and "stuff" in the utility room (if you can call it that) and just couldn't tell. Of course, the fact that we really are city folk and we don't deal with fuel tanks being empty, probably didn't help. And of course that was the problem. He called "the fuel guy" and told us he'd be out sometime that day, but he didn't know when and we need to be there because he'd have to purge the system or something like that. So, we waited, all grubby and unshowered until 5 o'clock that night, 5 O'CLOCK! And then we spent the evening taking turns in the shower and tub! I have to say, that shower felt soooo good!

So, we have lived in this "summer home" for not even 2 months now and we've dealt with:

-rusty water coming through the pipes to our tub
-the propane running out and we couldn't use our stove/oven
-the water not working AT ALL
-the fuel running out and not having hot water

I might be a whiner, but I'm just not particularly thrilled about all that. We can't get into housing soon enough for me!

Mary Engelbreit Monday

That is the best--to laugh with someone because you both think the same things are funny.
***Gloria Vanderbilt