Bi And Large

Oh my, has it been a month! I hate when I get into these moods of not being up to writing. Sorry to have gone so quiet.

Things are going along swimmingly through summer here. It's cool and dry for summer, but we'll take it.

I had a birthday, and I am old. Sam's anniversary happened a few days ago, and I am sad. Summer isn't the same any more. But hey NOTHING is the same any more.

Work continues to be a high point. I really enjoy it and each day gets better and better somehow. I am coming up on a year of working there already, believe it or not. It's been a good thing for me.

My parents closed on their condo down the street, so officially they are my neighbors! I never thought that would be a good thing, but maybe because it is only part time I am happy about it. We're having a blast decorating from top to bottom and buying all the furniture and everything. Mom has been moved into a waking cast (!!!) and is off her daily antibiotics so things are way, way better for her. They have plans to be out here in mid-August for mom's birthday and Amy's birthday, September for Labor day, and October for Halloween. Addicts!

The girls are good, although I think they are looking forward to school starting again. Amy's losing more teeth. I don't know if I mentioned that we had to switch nannies early in the year. The one aptly described by Greg as a tool was, in fact, a total tool. Terrible with the kids, really terrible. And our standards are pretty low. We were all completely miserable. So a cuple of weeks into it we were going to fire her when she emails me over a weekend and just says she's not coming back on Monday because taking care of kids is hard. No notice or anything. Luckily, we found a replacement over that weekend, and she is FANTASTIC. She's going to college in the fall so it's just a summer thing but really she is amazing. We all love her. So that's better. Swim lessons were great. The girls learned how to back float, dive underwater to retrieve rings, and Amy could do freestyle strokes the short length of the pool in laps. Now they have started karate lessons. It was just a whim thing - a new school was opening up across the road, we went to their open house as we passed by one day, the girls won a free month of lessons. Turns out they have a truly gifted kid's instructor and the girls LOVE karate. They have their white belt ceremony the first week of August and have already won badges (which reminds me, I have to sew those onto their uniforms / gi's.) Pete even signed up for some lessons once a week to give him an outlet, which I think is ideal. So karate for everyone!

What else... we have pet rats, did I tell you that? We went through like 3 parakeets in 2 weeks or something, and decided maybe they are just too fragile for our house. So we bought a pair of doe rats and their cage off of Craigslist and they are awesome. They are sturdy enough that the kids can really cuddle with them, smart enough to interact and do tricks, easy to care for, and furry soft and cuddly. So we are now limiting our pet threshold where we are now. Dog, cat, rats, and a couple fish. Period. That should be enough for any household!

Anyway that catches you up on our summer. My mood needs to shift, I need to be more communicatve than I have been recently....