2nd Quarter

I continue to be proud of my kids. Last week they brought home their report cards and had great grades as usual. Our boy has straight A's, for the second quarter running. Last quarter, our girl had A's and A+'s. This quarter she has 2 A+'s, 3 A's, 1 B+ and 1 B. It seems odd to be concerned about the B's, but we kind of are. These are the first B's she's ever brought home, so we're not sure if these are areas that she is struggling in or if she is just not "applying" herself. So we are going to try to spend some time with her and see what happens.
But really - their grades are such to be proud of, and we are.

Yay for Friday!

I am SO glad that it's Friday. Although every week Friday comes around and I'm happy about it, and then Sunday afternoon is here and I realize that nothing that I wanted to happen over the weekend did. So do I think I'm going to accomplish lots this weekend? Of course. Will I? Probably not. This is what I know for sure about this weekend:

• We do not have to go to my parents house at 6am each morning.
• We are not going to Karate on Saturday. These two things mean I'm sleeping in!!
• We are going to have dinner at my parents on Sunday.
• Shell and I are going to watch last weeks L Word and this weeks - back to back.
• The kids don't have school on Monday, so I don't have to spend Sunday night making sure everything is ready for school Monday morning. This is going to be very nice.

So I have no lofty goals for this weekend. Well, ok I do. But I am not expecting to get them done. I am seriously entertaining the thought of taking a couple of days vacation just to get my house clean and organized. I could make dinner each night and spend time with my wife. I could pretend to be a stay-at-home mom & wife for a few days. This is very appealing. I should definitely do this.

Brief Update

Well Jenny went home on Saturday. I think she did have a stroke, which can only be verified through very expensive tests, which my parents have declined. What good would they be really? The outcome would probably be the same. Sure they might find something that is treatable - or more likely manageable - for X-amount of dollars for how long? Right now she is home. She sleeps a lot. She gets up to greet visitors upon arrival, to eat & drink and to go outside. But sometimes I think she gets lost on her way outside. She does circular laps - always to the left - and if someone doesn't help her remember she will have an accident in the house. I went over Monday morning before Mom left for her morning route (5:30am!) and stayed until Shell got there from dropping off the kids at the bus stop. She stayed until Mom got home at 8. Yesterday and today, and for as long as necessary, the kids and I went over at 6am to stay with her until Shell came from work. And then she waits until Mom gets home. I don't know how long we will do this. Either until Jenny starts to do better or Mom & Dad accept that whatever happens happens, or ??? Remains to be seen.
On Sunday Dad called and asked to borrow our dryer because theirs stopped working. And because when it rains it pours. When he came over to put his clothes in the dryer, he asked about our extra dryer. When we bought our house, it came with a washer & dryer. We had already purchased one for the first house we thought we were going to get, and I was in love with it. So we decided to keep it and try to sell the "free" ones. Well, it is now over a year and a half later and they are both still in my basement. So... long story short, we gave them the dryer. Well, in exchange for a swiss steak dinner. And they will probably take the washer too - in exchange for fried chicken. We can be bought! Shell and I agreed that it was really nice to finally be able to do something for them, after all that they have done for us. To be honest, we still owe them.

Begin Again

It's been over 3 weeks since I last posted. So much - and not much- has happened. I have written many posts in my head in this time. So so many. And then I think how it would be nice to post a picture too. I'm having some difficulty with the whole picture posting thing. I am going to have to play with it some more. Now I wonder... with all the time that has passed, should I recap or just start over from today? I think I will fill in the missing moments throughout a couple of posts. For now, I will write about the current. My parents have a greyhound named Jenny. She is such a great dog. Everyone loves her. They got her from the greyhound rescue a few years ago. My mom called me on my way home and said that she is at the animal hospital. Earlier today, she started walking in circles and was very restless when laying down. After being checked at the vet, they did some x-rays and said they couldn't do much for her and that she would need to go to the hospital. So she is there for a 24 hour watch. They said she may have had a stroke, but want to watch her for any other symptoms. Oh boy, here we go again.

Mom just called and said she checked on Jenny and she is "resting comfortably". She will call again in the morning to check on her. Please let there be good news.

Pictured: Jenny