I think blogspot is working this morning, so I will try to get the pictures up! The first is AJ just before his first day of school in high school! The second is the second day of school, after getting out of the pool (I remembered to take a picture then). He was pretty happy to get his braces off!

Plans have changed, once again. AJ did not make the JV soccer team, so I am not going to Quincy this weekend, and won't be visiting Cindy. Bummer! She is going to try to get by and see us on Labor Day Weekend, as she may be going to the Humboldt camp-out at Trinity Lake that weekend. AJ was pretty bummed about not making the team, but....he didn't try as hard as the other kids. They have had practices all summer at the school on Wednesday nights, and he didn't go in for any of them (he was gone for 4 weeks during the summer, but he was home for 6!) He also can't play the tenor sax in Jazz Band. According to his teacher, he wasn't supposed to be in Jazz Band unless he switched instruments. (Nice of them to tell us this after school starts - we got his preliminary schedule in July!) Mr. Fowers is working on getting a soprano sax or something that he can switch to, so we shall see. If the school can't provide one, we will see about renting one for him.

Alli got off the school bus on Tuesday crying, and cried the whole time she was at daycare, and most of the way home with Ralph, but calmed down once he got her home (and gave her a snack, some juice, and a Pokemon movie). I sent a note in to school to see if they knew what had set her off, and according to the teacher, three kids on the bus were crying when they got off, and this wasn't the first time there were issues with the bus/bus driver! The "issue" has been turned over to the GREAT Partnership, and hopefully will be resolved! We (daycare and me) are watching now to see if it continues. Poor little thing! She is up now (6:00 a.m.) and is bouncing on her bed, giggling. I need to go get her up and dressed and fed and out the door! (We actually have almost an hour before the bus comes - plenty of time!)

I tpyed the following this morning, and then Blogspot ate it! I did manage to save a copy of it, but it should have been posted this morning!

Slowly but surely, I will get back into the routine for school! It would help if the routine stayed the same each year, but it changes every year too! This year, Alli's bus comes at 6:55 - last year, it was at 6:25. The bus comes to the driveway, so all I have to do is walk her to the street! AJ has to be at school at 7:30 this year, last year it was 8:15 - which meant he went in early, so I could get to work by 8:00 Now, I get to work early (and stay late - I love being the boss!) Alli is actually easier to get ready for school than AJ. She is used to me telling her to get up and get dressed, etc. AJ got used to sleeping in during the summer, and evidently not using his brain! Yesterday, we were in the car ready to leave. I looked at him and said "Jazz Band starts at 7:30, right?" to which he replied "Yes" to which I replied "Do you have your saxophone?" to which he replied a bad word. We got out of the car (house was locked up) and got the sax. We are back in the car, and I say "Soccer tryouts are from 4:00 to 6:00, so I will pick you up after I get off work, assuming you have your soccer gear with you" to which he replied another bad word. The day was not starting well for him! He had already missed breakfast because he didn't get up in time (even though I called him 3 times)and he was having to make do with a cereal bar, and then to go back into the house twice for stuff (that I had asked him to get ready the night before!). We barely made it in time for class.

Hopefully, today is better. Alli is up early today (she woke me up at 5:00 and then got up at 5:30, which gave me time to get up and get ME ready!) so she is showered and dressed, just needs to be fed and her lunch put together. It will all fall into place once we get through the first week or two. I need to go visit her classroom and meet her teacher, but she has asked us not to come in for the first week so the kids can get into a routine at school first.

The new dog is looking good, so far. I have pre-paid her spay, and the place is calling my vet today for a reference, and then I think they are scheduling a house visit. I think I have made it through every hoop so far. The way it is going, it will be next week before I get her, since I am going to be gone Friday and Saturday. We got the schedule for the tournament, and they boys have to be there for a game at 12:00, so they have to be there at 11:00 for warm-ups, and so I will probably be leaving around the same time I do for work. So much for that day off - no sleeping in for me! (I couldn't anyway - I have to get Alli ready for school.) Their first game is at 9:00 on Saturday, so I won't have a lot of time at Cindy's but she was thinking about coming to see one of the games, so we can talk there too.

Summer is over! Today is the first day of school, and I am trying to get back into the routine! Alli is up and dressed and her lunch is packed and she is ready to go. AJ, on the other hand, isn't up yet. I called him just a minute ago, so I will need to go in and try it again here shortly. Lazy bum! I have some pictures from NYLT (Boy Scout's National Youth Leadership Training) from this last weekend. I think he had fun - there was a lot of camaraderie there, judging by the boys' actions. I hope he learned a lot too!

I officially filled out an adoption request for a dog this morning too. Petco yesterday had a Rescue Group in, and they had the cutest puppy! I didn't get back in time yesterday to start the adoption, so I did that this morning. According to their website, she is Kelpie/Miniature Doberman. She looks like a German Shepherd, but in a smaller size. If the link works, here is a picture of her: http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8976927 She is about 4 months old, and, of course, adorable! We shall see if she "follows me home".

Here is another doily I finished as well.

I finished another doily - this one is done in 30 weight thread - much smaller than I usually use.

It measures about 18 inches as it is, so would have been much larger in 10 weight!

Well, we are AJ-less for a week now. He is at Camp Lassen, outside of Chico for week of Leadership Training. As he was getting his stuff ready on Sunday, an article in the paper caught my eye - Highway 32 closed outside of Forest Ranch due to fire. Lucky us - there is a forest fire about 5 miles (as far as I can tell) from his camp. It was 90% contained by Sunday night, but still! I hadn't even started worrying about him being caught in a forest fire! One new worry for me!

Here is a picture of Lucy - silly cat! She is such a people cat! She follows Ralph around when he is home and lays down wherever he is (which isn't hard, he is usually sitting in the patio reading). She also likes my lap in the morning while I read my e-mails. She isn't too fond of me typing a lot though - my lap gets a little cramped. She likes Ralph's lap in the evening too - he sits still longer than I do, and I usually have a crochet project in my lap, and she doesn't like to share.

Ralph e-mailed me his pictures from Aunt Inez's party.

Aunt Inez & Aunt Bea

Fred & his horn

Fred and Bobby House

Ronna took 6 of my doilies with her, but she may have wished she waited! I finished up this light blue one (the color didn't show well in the picture - sorry!) over the weekend! It is about 18 inches across as seemed to take forever to finish! The last two rows were quick, but the 5 before that were time consuming,

Ralph, Alli and I went to Aunt Inez's surprise 90th birthday party yesterday. Auntie is doing well - uses a cane now to walk, but still lives alone. (I think Pat goes over a lot to help out) I think Ralph took some pictures of everyone (on his i-phone!), so I will try to get pictures of some of the other guests. I know Fred Metz (and granddaughter and two great-grand sons) came down from Susanville, but Ralph can't tell me how the Jauchs/Blands are related to the Metz's. Bobby and Norma (Ithink that is her name) came in from Round Mountain with Debbie, their daughter. Bobby isn't doing too well. Ralph said he wasn't too sharp mentally, until Fred started telling stories. Then he perked up. His wife said he is physically failing too. She is having to do more and more for him for his daily care. Ray came in from Idaho, too, but I didn't talk to him at all. He did fill in some details about Bruno (the stuffed bear cub I have in the guest house.) Ralph was thrilled, and I found out who I get to give Bruno too! Angela (the girl in the pictures with Alli) wants him. (First I have to get Ralph to let me get rid of it - maybe for a wedding present, if Angela ever gets married?)

Angela played with Alli quite a bit at the party. Like me, she hadn't met most of the older relatives, though she has heard stories about them. Alli was playing peek-a-boo on the couch with her. You can't tell by looking at her, but she is 25 now!

Well, camping with Alli wasn't a lot of fun! Ronna and Joe took AJ up with them Friday morning, and Alli and I followed (after I cleaned up the kitchen!) Alli wasn't very happy when we got there, and never got any happier! After a couple of hours (spent mostly in Mom & Dad's camper) she was done - tantrum time! I stayed a bit longer, but she was never happy, so I just gave up and came home. I did get to walk along the lake with Dave (Thanks Mom - for watching Alli for me!)

Kolby - who is now taller than I am! (and very quick to point that out too, I might add!)
AJ and Jake throwing the ball for Jasper
A view of Crater Lake from the trail
Jasper - raising dust with her tail

I finished an angel - and thought the picture tured out "angelic"! Another quiet morning here! My car has to go into the shop today (flush the radiator) so there is no reason to get everyone up early. Once again, AJ is going to Alli's day care, so he will be supervised all day - which is good! He spends the day home alone during the summer, which I don't like (guilt, guilt, guilt) but there aren't a lot of alternatives for him. The neighbor kid has a stay at home mom, and she has no problem with AJ spending time down there, but then I worry about him over-staying his welcome, becoming a bother, etc. (guilt, guilt, guilt! - of course Marjean has absolutely no problem yelling at him or sending him home either, and she would probably call me and tell me if he did something wrong. I know I don't have a problem yelling at her kid, Dallas!)

This is AJ's last week of "summer". He is leaving (I hope) Thursday evening to go camping with Ronna, Joe and Sarah (if they have room in their vehicle), and then Alli and I will go up on Friday. I am also hoping Ronna will bring AJ home on Sunday, but if not, I will go back up and get him on Sunday. Alli and I don't camp, I get too stressed to relax. I'll go up early Friday and spend the day up with everyone and then come home Friday night (if Alli lasts that long). Then next week, he is going to the Boy Scout Camp outside of Chico for 6 days for National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT). I will pick him up from there Saturday night (if he passes the course - if not, I will have to go get him earlier, which had better not happen!) He then starts school on Monday at 7:30! (He also gets his braces off on Monday, so he will be missing part of his first day at school!) Soccer try-outs start Tuesday, with a tournament in Quincy on the weekend, so we will be "back to normal" - busy, busy, busy!

I am going to try to go over for the tournament, and spend the night with Cindy, since she is only about an hour away from Quincy. That will make it a fun weekend for me too! (Otherwise, it isn't real exciting to sit around waiting for your team to play - the coach said they are guaranteed to play 5 games in the 2 days, more if they make the finals. That means for about 16 hours play time (sitting in the sun for the parents), our team gets to play less than 5 hours (more sitting in the sun for the parents), and AJ probably won't make the first string, so he will only play a few minutes each game.) The life of a soccer mom!

One more done! I am taking my box of finished doilies up to the family camp out, for Ronna to choose a few!

What happens when you are getting ready to let Alli go swimming, and have a few minutes to spare, and you find a quick little pattern? The kitty gets a new toy! Alli swam for over an hour yesterday, so I had plenty of time to si in the patio and make this little mouse, which includes catnip and a bell. Now, I just have to get one of the cats to play with it. Yesterday, they ignored it, so I don't think I will be making any more!

I think I have finished playing with the wedding pictures. Here are the last of them (I hope!) If anyone needs a copy of one, let me know - I have lots more!

I think I had better post the two doilies I finished lately before I forget! The green one has beads on it, representing the decorated Christmas Tree - very cute!

I went out to the garden this morning for the first time since before I left for Ft. Bragg. I now have three bags full of tomatoes and cucumbers sitting on my table to take to work! I stopped picking my cherry tomatoes before I was really done, because I didn't have that much time! For a garden that wasn't producing, it decided to kick into high gear while my back was turned.

Alli tried a new trick last night, and now I will have to watch her for it from here on out. I was talking to a friend on the phone last night (after Alli was in bed!), and I heard water start down the hall. No big deal, Ralph was working outside, he must have decided to take a shower, since it was 105 here yesterday. Then, I saw Ralph walk by - still outside! I walked down the hall, and Alli was sitting in the bathtub, water running, dressed in her jammies and a diaper. I cut my phone call off very quickly, and got her up, out, dried off and back in bed. Now, to watch her to make sure she doesn't do it again - that was just way too much fun for her!