Latest Goings On

Well, as usual life is moving on but without pizazz. So here's the latest.

Um, Rachel and Mark both currently have nice jobs that will be good if they last. Rachel's seems to be set for a while but Mark's is still a little iffy. It's for a month and then...? hopefully they'll get more work and he can stay on indefinitely. The kids start school in a week and a half and some are anxious and some are not. It's all new to all the kids going to school around here. The DeB's are in new schools and Joe is starting kindergarten!

Kev and Shirl just got a new vehicle up and running. Shirley has been working on a party this coming Saturday where she and Kevin are to retake their wedding vows. She wants it to be 50's style but with Motown music! Sounds like fun! It'll be in my back yard so I gotta fix up the yard some, it's ready for some late summer whacking. And I gotta see if I can make the grass greener in the next week.

Rach and Tony spent their first night in their new home. They've done lots of work and made it quite "Rach and Tony". The walls are colorful and they replaced the nasty carpet that remained in 2 rooms with laminate flooring. Yesterday Rach, Heather and I worked in the kitchen, pulling out more nasty stuff, this time it's contact paper. The cable guys came out (yes! on Sunday!) and hooked them up so they now have internet and TV. I painted their TV stand so it goes with the rest of the living room furniture and we bought them, as a house-warming gift, a new kitchen faucet. Congrats guys - you did it!

Denny and Heather and Hunter are just revamping things at their house for the coming winter and since they now have a spare room. They are also planning to have another baby but have to get help to get pregnant. Denny's getting his house down in Tacoma finished soon and should be able to rent it out again soon. It flooded back in December and GMAC finance has been screwing things up so they haven't been getting the money to finish the rebuild. Once it's all done Denny plans to try suing GMAC. Hope he wins, they're the WORST mortgage company I've ever dealt with.

Last week I joined the daughters-in-law on a field trip to a local farm. They are part of a "mommy group" that took their preschool kids there. They had all the farm critters and they were available for the little kids to pet. They also had a horse and pony to ride, a little covered bridge, a 2 story playhouse, a barn, chickens, a peacock, straw to play with, picnic areas. It was just so cute and the kids mostly seemed to enjoy it. I got some awesome pictures of a friend's little boy throwing straw.

Rick and I are just plodding along, nothing special. We go out on Saturdays to "play", usually take pictures somewhere. This Saturday we went to the Des Moines marina and Saturday Market, then found a little park with a trail that led to a nice beach on the sound in Normandy Park. Made for a pretty nice and fairly local outing with pleasing photo opportunities.

We ARE looking forward to our upcoming Kauai trip! We leave on the 9th. I'll take Rick to work and then in the afternoon we'll have someone, probably Rach, drive me back to Rick's work, pick him up and deliver us to the airport. Then we land in Lihue at about 7:30 Kauai time! We're renting a car so we'll go to Walmart from the airport to pick up whatever we need, then hit somewhere for a burger and a beer (Bubba's?) then go to the folks' place and maybe get there before they get home from meeting. But - maybe we'll stop at a beach on the way there too, then we WON'T beat them home! Rick comes home on the 20th and I'll stay til the 30th. That way I can spend time with the folks, going out in service, whatever, for a week and a half. Hopefully we'll get a bunch of painting done for them.

I didn't realize but this coming weekend is a 3 day weekend - Labor Day!  So next week Rick only has to work for 3 days before we take off!  Woo hoo!  I'm glad we're getting a chance to spend some time enjoying some summer, since we've only had maybe 20 days of 80º temps here in our temperate Pacific Northwest.

When I get home just before October autumn will be in full swing - I hope I don't miss my 2 trees  turning vivid red.  Well, I'll survive, even if I do miss them.   Hawaii - here we come!