so I'll catch you up on what is new, but...where to even begin?
~1~
Four kids, 19 years of parenting, and our first cast. It was bound to happen. I knew with Amie's love of parkour, that a cast in our future was likely. I really thought it would be her wrist or arm, though, not the leg. She did this jumping from a 10 foot wall to a 6 foot wall, landing badly. One of the coaches came to get me when it happened and since she was still on top of the 6 foot wall, the quickest way to get to her was by going up the wall. The coach offered to give me a leg-boost up, and I accepted. Hands down, one of my very favorite funniest memories is the look of awe and shock on the other coach's face when he saw me pull myself up onto the wall. He thought I scaled it. His eyes bugged out is surprise. I kind of wished I really had done it, but I fessed up right away that I had a leg-up. They had so many cast color options!
~2~
I have a mid-term exam for my college class this week, which means that I am at the half-way point in the class. I have to take a moment and reflect on the fact that I haven't dropped out of the class, missed any assignments or just simply stopped going. Maybe I should light a candle in thanksgiving...living the Jenn life, I don't have a lot of success with follow-thru.
~3~
No missed assignments in my class, but living the Jenn-life, I of course have to have some screw-ups...I earned a perfect score on my first paper, but- here's the Jenn-life story>>>>> I stayed up late the night before finishing it (as only an accomplished procrastinator can) and then in the morning, I printed it up, 3-hole punched it, and stapled it together, with the rubric on the front. I dropped Josie off at school, got on the freeway and headed to class. As I was turning it it, I flipped through it, and realized the last 2 pages did not print at all. Yup, classic Jenn-moment. I was really lucky that the instructor is very approachable and easy-going, I emailed the entire paper to her as soon as I got home. The end. The moral of the story is that Sky is right and I shouldn't procrastinate. I'll get right on that....tomorrow. Maybe.
~4~
We (my sister and I) have moved on from helping my grandparents to managing their care. Two weeks or so ago, they had a plumbing problem in their bathroom. Sky took 3 days off work to go and repair their floor and replacing faucets on two sinks, and repairing water damage. We've been dying to rip out the carpet in their bathrooms and replace it with laminate that would be easier for grandmother to use her walker on, and easier to clean. Well, the water damage took care of that decision, and we were able to put in new waterproof vinyl plank flooring. It's really, really nice looking. Grandmother fell again while we were there, and we were able (barely) to convince her to come stay at our house for two nights while the bathroom work was going on, so she could rest. It was also a trial run for her to see what living with us would look like. Grandfather has alzheimer's and is declining, I really think grandmother needs to be living with us, so I can care for her. I couldn't believe how hard it was to get her to come stay with us, she was so worried about grandfather. I am hoping that we can have her stay with us about once a month for two days, so she can get some rest. I am already madly pinning grandmother suite ideas on pinterest, and I think we are going to start on the suite soon, so it will be ready for her when she needs to come. I {heart} pinterest. I'm a visual person, I love pinning beautiful photos and ideas! You can see my boards here:
http://www.pinterest.com/henjenca/
(I know, I need to figure out how to put a pinterest button on my sidebar...coming soon!)
~5~
We are doing a lot of managing and coordinating for the grandparents. I have found that the Cozi site is really useful for elder-care management. It's a online family schedule site, the cool thing is that two people can manage it so both my sister and I have access. We put all their Dr. appointments into the calendar, and then we get alerts weekly on what is happening. There is also a section for photos- where I upload receipts and there is also a journal section where I can record things that are happening with them- that grandfather could not remember my mother, that grandmother fell, that I spoke to grandmother for the first time about coming to live with us. It is a really helpful site, and it is free.
~6~
Josie has a painting up for auction for her arts high school. The auction ends March 19th. This would make a nice gift for someone in the military, or for a parent of someone in the military. It is titled "on patrol" and you can click the link here to bid on it here: On Patrol OCSA auction. It is oil on canvas and the size is 15" by 24". Proceeds go to fund the Orange County School of the Arts conservatory programs, which is non-profit. The fundraising event also has other art and packages for bid, different things like dinner packages, tours, etc.
~7~
Sky found us a new show on BBC, it's called Endeavor and is a police mystery show that takes place in the late 1960's - I think. It's very good, we've watched two episodes so far and we are hooked.
*7 Quick Takes happens every Friday over at Conversion Diary
My mother died about a year and a half ago. Quickly, unexpectedly, young.
by L.M. Montgomery. I wanted to read Rilla of Ingleside with them because of how wonderfully it shows the impact of World War II on the families left behind, but then I thought the book would have more pull on them if they felt like they knew the main characters first as children. I love sharing this book with them, The Anne of Green Gables series is such a treasure. I try to read all 8 books every year or so. (yes there are 8 in the Anne series). After reading two chapters, Demi worked on Science and I sat with Amie and worked on Math Mammoth with her. Once we were done, I took Amie to her parkour classes. Demi was free to practice his piano and work on his short story.
