The 'Last' Weekend for Awhile:(

Just to give you an idea of why I seem so scatterbrained lately? (more so than usual,lol, I know there's some comments going thru some of your mind's out there, Sis and Mom:)

I realized last week when looking at my schedule that, after this weekend off, I won't have two consecutive days off together from work again until Aug.18.

I had great plans to try and Relax and Enjoy this weekend, ha ha, which seem to have been kicked in the head by the raging sore throat and fever I seem to be having. I suppose it's nice that I don't have to miss work by being sick? (lol, always looking for the silver lining:) but this wasn't really my ideal way to 'take it easy.'

Regardless of how I feel, Tony and I also planned to rage on housecleaning today (although we won't be posting a picture of our vacuum cleaner,lol, like Adam and Tracy.) I know....we really know how to live it up, don't we?

But, Kyle had come by the other night and picked up his bed and dresser out of April's room, and once he removed them, we want to get that room ready for the painting that we'll be doing down there, before we move the bed down from upstairs for her. (this painting, of course, will be in all that 'spare time' we have floating around:)

We also received word from the school about the first Fundraising opportunity for the Hawaii trip April will be taking with the choir in March. It will be...wait for it...  the next weekend I have off,rofl. I can volunteer to go work a booth at the Fair

Click here: Rockingham County Fair

for 5 hours.Too funny...this is, naturally, exactly what I wanted to do after killing myself with work for the next few weeks. However, it will be a Huge start to the Fundraising effort, and I do want to see all of these kids in the band and the choir able to go. So, I shouldn't gripe....it will actually get me into the Fair for free, as far as I know, and we can always walk around the Fair afterwards:) as April and Tony will be volunteering that day,also. (note to self...must tell them that. LOL:)

Before I forget, wanted to pass on HUGE THANKS to my Uncle Don. I have a 'gap' in my computer knowledge,lol, in that I never really learned how to use word processing software or anything to do with Word documents,etc. 

I needed to be able to print out a document for Tony, for something he's involved in, and ran into a glitch when I didn't have the same software as the person who sent us the document. So, I turned to Mom, who directed me to Uncle Don (thanks to Mom,too:) and he went above and beyond, in helping me figure out what to do next! Uncle Don, once again.....THANK YOU!

Well, this is all the latest in the 'watching paint dry' category:) Hope everyone has a great week!

 

 

Updates

April returned safe and sound from the PYT late Sun.night/Mon. morning, and says she had a blast:)

Over 4,400 young people were there!!

If you want to check out more about what last week was like for her?

Click here: Presbyterian Youth Triennium 2007

and if you click on the "Latest News" link at the top, there's a drop down menu with stories about the various things they did.

The rest of this week, and again for a week in August, she's helping out with the music at a local camp for foster children

Click here: Camp Kaleidoscope > About

 

which she also did last year, and really enjoyed doing.

 

Tony had a good time on his camping trip, and I had the experience while both of them were gone of being (briefly) scared to death on the one night I was home from work. I had just started to drift off to sleep when I heard some banging noises, and of course my first thought was 'oh heavens, I'm here by myself and someone is breaking in the house!"

 

I went to the top of the stairs and realized the noise was Tiger kitty

throwing herself kamikaze style at the sliding glass door, hissing and yowling.

 

(and why she didn't knock herself out, I'll never understand,lol)

 

Realizing that there must be 'something' on the back deck, I came down and flipped on the light and a stray yellow cat looked back at me. (Tiger continuing to go crazy this whole time.) I said "hey! get out of here!" and the stray gave me a smirking sort of look and Slowly, one paw at a time, started moving towards the edge of the deck....as if to say "Nyahh,nyahh, Ok, I'll go....but only because I want to!"

 

Sheesh.....cats.

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Sister Tracy and Brother-in-law Adam have, of all things, a picture of their new vacuum cleaner posted

Click here: A Red Thread to China: What a weekend!!

 

(but, what do you expect?LOL, from people who also post pictures of Food!:)

Click here: A Red Thread to China: It's all about the food

 

Seriously, the time is getting closer and closer for them to FINALLY get their baby!! This has taken forever! And I'm getting so excited for them:)

 

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Remember the virtual baby shower I posted about?

Click here: You are Invited to a Virtual Baby Shower :)

 

Friend Trish had a nice Thank You posted on her MySpace blog

Click here: blog.myspace.com/trishy_girl

 

and also sent via email a picture:)

 

Way to go,everyone!! :)

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Son Kyle is getting ready to move to a new apt,and will be taking back the bed and dresser that he left here for April to use, when he was living in the furnished place. I should be cleaning out the dresser right now,lol, And doing about 20 other things...but, you see where I am:)

April has suggested that before we move her old bed and dresser to her room, we paint it. Which I guess means we'll Really be 'watching paint dry' around here soon. (Sorry....just couldn't help myself:)

 

I easily earned the 'Best Mom in the World" title yesterday from April, by purchasing the latest Harry Potter book and saying She could read it first. Hope she reads fast!! I'm itching to read it,too!

 

And that's all the latest from here in the 'Burg. Hope everyone is doing well, and have a great weekend!

 

Card Showers:)

Awhile back, I sent out an email that an Australian friend was having a card shower for her grandson,Clayton.(Here he is pictured holding his new baby sister,Serenity.)

You can see my friend's blog post here

Click here: Yahoo!7 360° - charlee_rd's Blog - Entry for 30 June 2007 "Friends"

and the address is:

Clayton Woodham

P.O. Box 505

Bateman's Bay

NSW 2536  

Australia

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My friend's grandson is autistic.

When my Uncle Don in NH opened the email about the card shower, he was inspired to respond....because he has been spending time mentoring an autistic son of a co-worker, named Zack.

I was not at all aware that Uncle Don was mentoring this young man, until he sent a 'Reply All' email detailing some of his experiences of spending time with this young man, and the joy that has added to his life.

One of the good Soldiers Angels ladies that I know who received that email reply from Don, promptly responded with the idea that we also all do a card shower for Zack.

Don checked with Zack's mother and got her permission, and the address to send post cards for Zack is:

Zack

c/o Don McNulty

33 Gunstock Rd.

Gilford,NH 03246

(and please be aware that Zack is a huge fan of Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and anything Godzilla or dinosaur related:)

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It costs 90 cents to send a postcard to Australia, and 26 cents to send a domestic postcard. Won't you please consider sending postcards to these two young men?

Thank you so much!

(and feel free to spread the word:)

 

Happy Birthday!

To Ben, Sue and Dustin!

 

A Little Bit of Everything

Well, I am finally getting some computer time again,but almost wish I was still jockeying with Dustin, April, and Tony for the computer!

Now that Dustin is gone, everyone Else in the house is getting ready to take off this next week...except me,sigh. Tony will be gone for a short camping trip. (I'll be working,yee ha) and April will be going to a Presbyterian Youth Conference. (yes, the truth is out..we're Presbyterians.) You can check out the website for it here

Click here: Presbyterian Youth Triennium 2007

This will be a Huge deal, it looks like..I think she will have a blast. (except maybe for the 12 hour bus trip,ha ha.)

and, they even have a MySpace page!!  (holy cow, is Everyone on MySpace these days? April might have to change her mind about it being 'for OLD people':) Be sure and check out some of the videos from previous Trienniums (posted in the blogs section:)

Click here: www.myspace.com/triennium

 

Miss April is turning into a regular little traveler....as she will Also be going to HAWAII next year (where her brother is stationed, by the way) with the choir from school, to this festival

 

Click here: World Projects Music Festivals and Tours - 2008 Pacific Basin Music Festival - Choral

 

Sigh, my biggest high school trip was to.....Washington,DC.  How things have changed,huh? :)

 

So April seems to be trying to give my brother Kirby a run for his money, on the traveling thing,lol. Speaking of the 'bro'....not much contact with him lately, due to computer difficulties on his end...."oh brother, where art thou?"

 

But, youngest sis Tracy just recently had a baby shower, given by other sister Sue...she's got a great slideshow of the pics, you can check it out here

 

Click here: A Red Thread to China: OurLucky 7's Baby Shower!

 

For more exciting news on the homefront here?  I just finished reading a Great book not too long ago, I posted about it on 'the other blog'

Click here: Just Finished Reading "A World Undone:The Story of the Great War,1914 to 1918" by G.J. Meyer

 

I think I might have the whole 'summer reading thing' backwards,LOL, as I recall in previous summers reading a book about the Kurds (can't recall the title) and also reading this lovely tome

Click here: Amazon.com: Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust: Books: Daniel Jonah Goldhagen

 

I'm pretty sure these don't qualify for 'standard Beach reads' :) and when you think that I have two Dean Koontz books I still need to read, And a James Patterson novel? What was I thinking?? ("oh yeah, go for the lengthy non-fiction book about a World War....that's what I'll take out by the pool".lol)

 

In the incredible dichotomy that is my life, however, Tony and I just went last night to see     Transformers  :)  So, I think I can still safely claim Not to be immune to pop culture.  I loved the movie, although I had that old theme song from the Transformers cartoon running through my head for a large part of the movie...."Transformers, More than meets the eye....Transformers,Robots in Disguise..." LOL. The things that are floating around in my brain.

 

I also finally recently got to see  Memoirs of a Geisha ( I know, two years late....that's generally how I see movies, years after they come out...which is why I was so psyched to see Transformers in the theatre!!:) April and I caught a late night showing on cable, fortunately when her brother and Dad weren't around, as I have a feeling we'd have been asked to switch to the NFL network?  Loved that movie,too, I had read the book but so long ago that I didn't remember much.

 

And that's the latest news from "the 'Burg."

 

 

 

 

 

Saying goodbye.....

Just saw Dustin off a little while ago. Tony is taking him to the airport.

I'm a little blue, but also glad for him, that he's off to start the next part of his life.

 

We're Still Here, Just Busy!

April went to  King's Dominion  yesterday, with the church youth group, and had a great time. Got home at 1 am,yikes! They went because it was  King's Fest and according to her, the concerts were wonderful :)

My work schedule has been crazy, like today, I was supposed to work 11 pm to 7 am, and now it's been switched to 3 pm to 11 pm because someone was ill.  I forget again...what is sleep? lol.

Bad news....cousin Brian's 4 year old suffered a very bad broken leg, and is in a cast that covers almost his whole body.  Please keep him in your prayers, thank you so much. Poor baby. What an awful thing to happen.

Well, I must try and catch a short nap, I had actually gotten up early to do a few things, thinking I could sleep this evening, and of course that whole plan got changed after work called.......but just wanted to say we're still here,  just crazy-busy.

BTW...sister Tracy and BIL Adam have GREAT news...not the BEST news yet (a referral) but...they are Closer and Closer!!

Click here: A Red Thread to China: Up to 11/14/05 - it's official!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

 

Excuse the pun,but......

Our cat is a basket case :)

Sorry....couldn't resist!

 

Hurray! Videos from Graduation:)

I finally figured out how to upload the two short videos we took at Dustin's graduation from Basic.

The Graduates Marching In

Platoon Marching Onstage

 

Fourth of July Parade

If you couldn't make it to a parade today? thought I'd share ours with you.

Happy 4th of July!

 

Enjoying the Pool :)

We enjoyed the pool today!

Hope everyone else had a great day!

 

 

Hope Everyone has a great 4th :)

Hope y'all have a safe and happy holiday:)  Our pool is filled, and our flag is up out front. Happy Birthday,USA!

Love,Kathi

Our Pool is Filling Up:)

(Stock photo from K-Mart website)

Our pool is filling up,Yay! :) The pic above is 18 by 48, I couldn't find an exact pic of ours, which is 16 by 42. But otherwise, it looks the same.

Tony got it Sat. evening...he's working a short term job right now for 3-6 months,plus he also did some painting this weekend at a friend's house, so he got the pool as a surprise.

While I'm typing this, I can hear the water running to fill it up. (or, as I also like to think of it....the sound of our water bill going UP,UP,UP for this month,LOL :)

April and I are really excited about this.....now we can just walk out into the back yard and hop in whenever we feel like swimming!

It should be done filling today, and there is a chlorine kit that Tony needs to then use. It also has a cover...he got a GREAT deal on the price, it was on sale (and then said when we were setting it up..."I didn't realize it would be This big!!!") We also bought locks for the front and back gates, so that no one can get in.

Since Dustin bought Tony a gas grill for Father's day, we're planning on having a cookout on the 4th and hopefully (weather permitting) use the pool!

Tony's brother Chris came by the other day, and brought Dustin's Granny over to see him...I got one pic, and then the camera said 'batteries exhausted",darn it. (we've since gotten new batteries:)

There's some grillin' shots up top, and we did an early celebration of Dustin's birthday.

(Kirby...I LOVE my camera!! :)